Common Mistakes in Business Process Automation: The Missing Project Champion

The Situation

On paper, everything appears set for successful project execution: a fully staffed implementation team with project managers, methodologists, architects, consultants, and DevOps engineers. The client has assembled a complete project team. There's an approved charter, agreed work plan, regular meetings, and established processes for cross-team collaboration.

Yet over time, it becomes clear the project is losing steam. Decision-makers increasingly skip meetings. Discussions become circular, rehashing the same issues with people who can't actually decide anything. Key decisions get postponed indefinitely or never happen at all. Deadlines slip, and interest wanes—not just among client stakeholders, but among the implementation team too. Everything feels procedural: people go through the motions without real engagement.

Since the project looks properly structured on all formal criteria, the problem isn't always obvious. But the reality is that large, complex projects with multiple stakeholders are missing a critical component: a true leader, or "project champion". This person is completely invested in success from day one to go-live, often living and breathing the project while energizing both teams.

What Is a Project Champion?

The client-side champion is the leader, connector, and primary results driver. They understand the real challenges, have influence with colleagues, and know how decisions actually get made. They may not hold the highest position or formal authority, but their involvement is mission-critical. They don't make every key decision themselves, but they know how to get decision-makers to act. They're deeply engaged with every aspect of the project and business domain, building relationships with all future system users and convincing them why this matters.

Ideally, they understand how the organization really works knowing who to call (often through informal channels) to solve unusual problems. They can drive concrete decisions and navigate important changes through internal approval processes.

Most importantly, champions believe in the project. They don't wait for marching orders from leadership — they initiate activities, provide prototype feedback, coordinate teams, and negotiate with decision-makers. They genuinely want the system to work, not just technically but in terms of real user adoption. They're typically first to test the system, share actual use cases, recommend the solution to colleagues, and crucially use it themselves.

The Consequences

1. Extended Timelines Decisions crawl at a snail's pace, approvals take weeks, and work stalls waiting for formal sign-offs.
2. Diffused Accountability No one owns the big picture. Responsibility gets spread thin across participants. Everyone handles "their part" but nobody owns the overall outcome.
3. Lost Focus and Priorities The project becomes less important to the client team. Project tasks get deprioritized, especially when people are already stretched thin.

A Real Example

A major home appliance retailer launched a project to develop normative planning models across 20 functional divisions. The ambitious scope included updating Bottom-Up (BU) budget methodologies and building Top-Down (TD) approaches from scratch for each division. BU and TD differ significantly in calculation detail, drivers used, and statistical methods. The methodology work would be followed by process automation through a CPM system implementation.

These divisions had never run budget cycles using TD approaches, yet leadership decided to implement rolling forecasts alongside periodic planning to support continuous business management. To minimize disruption from monthly reforecasts, they created specialized TD driver models for each division, primarily maintained by finance. However, designing these models required deep expertise from the relevant divisions - Marketing, Logistics, Retail Development, etc.

The divisions saw no benefit in the new approach. Worse, they saw risk, since TD calculations would become the foundation and often "ceiling" for their BU budgets. Meanwhile, the implementation team faced enormous methodology and automation workloads under tight deadlines. They lacked both resources and influence to convince dozens of stakeholders with varying engagement levels and availability.

Fortunately, an experienced and charismatic Product Owner led the project from the client side. They excelled at building communication across all divisions, organizing sponsor meetings to showcase progress and secure decisions on budget and scope changes. They became the system's ambassador, running pilot tests and helping divisions with data input and budget calculations. They built team spirit, motivated participants on both sides, and took ownership during tough moments. The project launched on schedule with a successful first budget cycle. Without this champion, the implementation team would have struggled to deliver the same results in the same timeframe.

Warning Signs

1. Decisions Drag and Require Escalation The same issues surface repeatedly, but key decisions never happen. It feels like endless rehashing without progress.
2. Decision-Makers Skip Meetings Calls and meetings happen without the people who can actually decide. The implementation team raises issues but gets no resolution.
3. Token Client Participation Client employees show up and do the minimum, with no initiative or ownership. All drive comes from the implementation side.

How to Avoid This Problem

1. Identify Your Champion Early This could be the project manager, product owner, division leader, or another respected team member. Look for someone deeply knowledgeable about the business domain with strong communication skills and professional credibility.
2. Ensure They're Motivated Champions often take on this role informally. Sometimes they're frustrated with the status quo; sometimes they see career opportunity. What matters is genuine investment and clear motivation to see things through.
3. Clear Their Calendar If possible, reduce or eliminate their operational responsibilities during active implementation phases.
4. Give Them Visibility and Recognition Public recognition, showcasing their contributions, and including them in strategic discussions strengthens their internal position and sustains their motivation to drive the project forward.

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