Question: what are the primary reponsibilities of senior level executives relative to project management? 

Answer: One or more of the execs may be the project sponsor.  The sponsor is responsible for monitoring overall project performance on a periodical basis, and also for helping to resolve any large issues that the project manager is unable to resolve.  The sponsor sometimes "champions" the project in the organization.\n\nOther execs, who are not the sponsor, could be involved in project selection and prioritization, and overall monitoring/management of the project portfolio, and also establishing the overall project environment.  \n\nThey could also have functional managers reporting to them, and thus have the ability to affect how well the functional managers support the project.
This question from the Yahoo Q&A forum is categorized in the topic: Entertainment & Music