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Document the roles of everyone involved, including consultant, contractor and client resources
Identify skill sets and responsibilities of everyone on the list
Generate tabled rosters and distribute these to your team
Meet at regularly scheduled times to review responsibilities and other issues
Communicate roles and responsibilities to the client and make sure they're understood and
signed off on. If any of your work or contractual obligations rely on information, data, files, or
other copy to be received from the client, make certain that understand what you need and when
you need it. If there are daily, weekly, monthly or other scheduled receipt of copy, write this
information down and insert it into your project timeline with appropriate names attached. Give
a copy to the client.
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Take the time to identify a communication schedule. The nature of the project and culture of the
client will help decide this. Define the most appropriate communications protocols, i.e., phone,
FAX, E-mail, memo, etc. and sign off on it. Identify the most appropriate communication
schedule and which team members will be included in regularly scheduled meetings, whether
conference calls, face to face, etc. Get signoff on each of these from the client, document your
Communications Plan, and distribute it to all involved. Effective communication is the only way
to minimize and eliminate confusion and the resulting lost time.
Identify project communication protocols and parameters for the Communications Plan.
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Whether you are assigned a prominent role in client relations or not, communicate the primacy of
the client to your staff. Moderate the tendency of staff to perceive the client as a pain. They are
the paying customer after all and come first.
Projects often assume an identity of their own. There is a tendency for staff to feel and work as
though the project emerged from inside the company and to forget that a separate corporate entity
has requested the work be done. The fact that the consultant has sold their services to a paying
client often gets lost in the enthusiasm of the project staff. Manage that enthusiasm, keep it
focused on the goals of the client.
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Depending on your personal style, the culture of your organization, and the makeup of your team,
how familiar you are with the team will vary. One thing you must keep in mind however, you are
no longer a team member alone, you are the coach. You have the responsibility of keeping the
team focused. In general, you will not have the luxury of familiarity with team members in the
way that they will have and you used to. You must encourage comraderie while maintaining
some degree of distance. The reason is simple, as mentioned above the Project Manager will be
teacher-guru-slave driver-guide. You must operate at several levels at once. The time will come
when you will crack the whip and that will require some separation from the team. New
managers especially discover some difficulty in achieving this balance, particularly if they
are promoted from within the organization. You may now be managing people you used to work
with. This is often a difficult situation. Communicate these frustrations to your superior.
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Competing energies from the client, external contractors, and internal staff often result in new
ideas and directions not described in the Design Specification. Focus is lost and teams lose sight
of the target. Make sure everyone understands the goals even as they shift, and ensure that
everyone's activities are geared to satisfying the solutions to the problem as laid out in the
Design Specification and Problem Specification documents. The iterative nature of
programming projects ensures thsat change will occur.
Acknowledge proposed changes, investigate these, and come to a conclusion whether they are
urgent or not. If so, call in appropriate staff to analyze and make recommendations. Where
changes are approved, first evaluate the impact, document this, and then negotiate a contractual
change. Make sure the client is aware of and understands all implications and impacts before
you negotiate the change and then schedule and implement the change.
The PM provides the compass and the map to the project, the direction to the goal agreed to by
all. The Project Manager must anticipate changes to the plan as well as the tendency towards
fragmentation.
Recognize that it is not the client's responsibility to anticipate or understand problems that will
arise. That's why they hired you. In fact, the client will be a source of some problems.
Anticipate that.
You are the compass & map: Where are you going? How will you get there? Who is going with
you? and Who will help?
Team Rosters
Establish rosters of all team members including: the consultant (you and your team), all
contractors you utilize, and the client's talent.
Communications
One of the first activities you will engage in is settling on how and when you will communicate
with the client. Work with the client as soon as the contract is signed and your interaction with
them begins, deciding how often you will be in communication and what mode that
communication will take. Make a list of parameters: FAX, phone, E-mail, memo, etc.
Technology Inventory
Inventory all of the technology proposed to the client. Identify appropriate talent to implement
the technical solutions based on RFP, Proposal, Problem Specification and Design Specification.
Don't rely on who seems available. Fight for the right people to be on your team.
Client Relations
The Project Manager will work with account representatives to maintain a positive relationship
with the client. Depending on the culture of your organization, and that of the client, the degree
to which you will interact with the client will vary. Your account representative may assume a
prominent role in client relations, or may feel comfortable delegating that responsibility to you.
Identify this role early in the project. Don't assume the account rep will handle all relations with
the client. Be proactive and labor early on to define this role and ensure the client is comfortable
with the situation.
Team Building
You are managing a skilled and creative group of individuals. It is imperative that the group
move forward as a team. You need to moderate and manage the natural enthusiasm of your staff.
There is little time for "artistry" in a technical project. The team must work together and avoid
too much individuality, while, at the same time you are encouraging creative problem solving
behavior. This is a difficult balance. Some simple guidelines inlcude:
Managing Change
Projects have a natural tendency to self-destruct. Competing centripetal energies fragment the
direction and thus the integrity of the project.
This is amplified in client-oriented technical
projects. Know now that your project management is mirrored, to some extent, client-side. They
have their own ideas. They have been thinking about and planning for this project a lot longer
than you have. They are going to contribute, to some extent, to the project. The Project Manager
must play host to the client and at the same time control their tendency to get involved.
Understand and accept that change will occur and that some changes will be beneficial.