Are you already a project ambassador?

If you look at your employment contract, what job title do you find there? Project manager, product owner, requirements analyst, system designer, sales manager, account manager, graphic designer or software developer? What you certainly won’t read: project ambassador.

In the next few lines, I’ll tell you why this is the case, why many projects would be happy to have project ambassadors and why the job can be important for organisations.

Project ambassador – a role or an activity?

What is a project ambassador? Unfortunately, there is no practical definition of the term on the Internet. This non-existence is probably due to the following reasons:

• It is not a corresponding role, it does not appear in employment contracts, nor in frameworks such as Scrum or in project methodologies such as PRINCE2. Even the V-Modell XT – a German standard for the planning and implementation of system development projects that is aimed at both clients and contractors – with its 32 project roles and 6 organisational roles does not recognise the project ambassador.¹
• It is possible that organisations often fail to recognise the need or shy away from the effort involved in dealing with the project ambassador.
• It is an activity that is implicitly assigned to a role. Scrum, for example, has been defining accountabilities for a number of years, while the 7th edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) recognises stewardship and thus a person who acts in a benevolent, respectful and caring manner.

In view of these reasons and the fact that a clear and established definition of the term “project ambassador” has so far been lacking on the Internet, a unique opportunity has arisen here: we are closing the gap and creating an initial definition. In this way, we provide guidance for all those involved in project management and help to emphasise the importance of an essential, albeit often invisible, activity in the project environment.

Project ambassador – a definition

A project ambassador is an implicit activity rather than an explicit role that is ideally taken on by several people in a project team. This activity involves actively promoting and representing the project objectives, both within the organisation and externally to outside stakeholders. Project participants who see themselves as project ambassadors communicate the vision, values and benefits of the project as required. They help to gain supporters and support, create acceptance and maintain positive relationships that are important for the success of the project.

How do you like the definition?

Derived from the activities of a diplomatic ambassador, some activities are obvious. The project ambassador

• represents the interests of the project.
• practises diplomacy.
• acts in the direction of the organisation and stakeholders.
• promotes dialogue and strengthens relationships between project participants and project stakeholders or beneficiaries.
• acts as a mouthpiece in the project environment.
• eliminates ambiguities.

In short: the project ambassador communicates with the project environment and carries out “modern public relations work”.

The importance for projects and organisations

Why are project ambassadors positive for projects and organisations? Let’s take a look at a fictitious example:

Project 1 gets into trouble slightly. Customer X regularly presents new requirements. The project planning with the agreed delivery dates is jeopardised. The project manager runs from meeting to meeting. Additional capacity is needed, employee B from project 2 is temporarily assigned to project 1.

If we break this example down into its individual parts, we realise that

• there may be an imbalance in the collaboration with the customer. Does X know about the consequences of its new requirements? What happens to original requirements, hours already worked, half-finished implementations, deadlines or costs incurred?
• the project manager is doing her best, but she may be part of an unhealthy system with countless meetings. Increased workload is often compensated by additional work, but this should be the exception and not the rule. It can also be assumed that the project manager finds less and less time for queries or individual discussions in project 1, which has an additional effect on the mood of those involved.
• Employee A has to do without the work of colleague B in project 2. There is a lack of clarity about the length of the delay and future prioritisation. Anyone who is now allowed to talk to the client about unforeseeable consequences will probably not be jumping for joy.

In such a situation, which is perhaps not so fictitious in some organisations, wouldn’t it be advantageous to know that there are others on your side? Or to put it another way: how does the project concerned benefit from the activities of the project ambassadors?

The project and its participants benefit when several people – aka project ambassadors – address the specific situation within the organisation. They shoulder the task of communication together, they act as a mouthpiece in real time, they campaign for support, they clarify priorities, they involve other areas, they create acceptance. They act continuously and persistently in the interests of the project and its goals.

And how does the organisation benefit? The organisation gains with its committees and decision-making responsibilities, as it gains a real insight into the project and its challenges. For example, the sales manager could then discuss the continuously reformulated requirements with the contact person on the client side and agree on a coordinated, structured approach. This creates clarity, increases the predictability of delivery dates, reduces the pressure on those involved in the project and ensures greater transparency on the client side.

Sounds almost like a win-win situation, doesn’t it?

Skills of project ambassadors

What skills should project ambassadors have? Possible skills can be derived from the fictitious example:

• The ability to communicate clearly and convincingly is certainly very important. Project ambassadors should be able to convey complicated contexts in an understandable way.
• They should be able to build and maintain relationships with people. Empathy and emotional intelligence are important in order to understand the needs and perspectives of different stakeholders.
• Project ambassadors should be able to win others over to the project goals and mobilise their support. This also includes recognising resistance and acting diplomatically.
• The ability to build and utilise a broad and effective network could be important in gaining supporters.
• Conflicts are unavoidable in projects. The ability to listen to people in order to truly understand them rather than respond to them is more than desirable.
• Projects are often dynamic. Ambassadors should therefore be able to adapt quickly to changing conditions and requirements.
• The ability to see the big picture and act strategically is important to promote the long-term goals of the project AND the organisation.
• Project ambassadors should be able to act proactively, without constant guidance or supervision.

There is certainly room for additions to this list, but it is probably a good start for people who want to be effective project ambassadors.

Conclusion

You will not find the project ambassador as a job title in your employment contract, nor in various frameworks, project management methods or process models. You’ll hardly even find it on the internet. Of course, this will change with this article… 😉

In terms of content, it is more of an implicit activity than an explicit role. An activity that is ideally shouldered many times over in order to create acceptance in the project environment among people who are directly and indirectly affected. An activity that mediates and perhaps also advertises a little, that listens in order to understand, that communicates, speaks the truth and finds fellow campaigners, addresses problems and ensures transparency.

One of the reasons I gave for the non-existence of the term on the Internet was the “unrecognised need in organisations and the possible effort involved in dealing with the project ambassador”. In fact, I don’t see any additional effort at all; all that is needed in project practice is to encourage the project participants to take sides and act in the interests of the project. Many things will then happen almost automatically. However, I believe that the need is overlooked. But each of us can change that in our company from now on:

Are you already a project ambassador?

Extra bonus

Here you will find 3 additional questions about project ambassadors answered by Michael Schenkel (please press the plus button):

Notes (partly in German):

[1] Projekt- und Organisationsrollen im V-Modell XT

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Michael Schenkel has published further articles in the t2informatik blog, including

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