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This article explores the role played by the project sponsor and project manager in successfully delivering information technology (IT) projects. It describes the common issues of the client-consultant relationship, comparing the perspectives of project managers and project sponsors gathered from the literature and through interviews. The research further explores the underlying reasons for the existence of the issues that impact the successful delivery of IT projects. This article goes beyond identifying critical success factors and uses a systemic inquiry to learn about the influences that shape attitudes, actions, and perspectives. The research setting is a South African business consulting company. The findings are that the fundamental influence on the client-consultant relationship is the lack of understanding and appreciation of each other's environments; that is, project sponsors are rooted in an operational environment, and project managers are rooted in a project environment. Because of this lack of understanding and appreciation, communication barriers exist. In order to overcome these barriers, both project managers and project sponsors need to engage in an ongoing dialectic relationship to understand and appreciate each other's respective environments. Establishing an appreciation of each other's environments enables project managers and project sponsors to be more understanding of the demands within each environment as well as the impact environment has on project delivery. A suitable management process that can put in place a dialectical relationship management process is established and proposed as an option to improve the engagement process between project sponsors and project managers engaged in IT projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]