I worked on a project for several
months that was extremely disorganized on the client side. There were many
issues that came up through the duration of the project but one issue that
would continuously affect the project negatively was missed deadlines. This is
a huge issue and will no doubt negatively affect the project from top to
bottom. There is no good way to measure appropriate development of deliverables
if you have an ever changing goal. This leads to instability in every aspect of
the project and can hugely affect the mood of the staff involved. I do feel
that there could have been something done in order to re-focus the project. If
the project manager had spoken directly, honestly and respectfully to the
client about how very destructive this behavior was it would not have been
repeated so often. Bringing this to their attention would have opened up the
lines of communication and allowed them to see how negative of an affect this
was on the overall success of the project.
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Kat,
ReplyDeleteHow frustrating for you that the client was so disorganized. Low morale and negativity make working on a project that much harder.
As stated by Allen & Hardin,(2008) everyone needs to be included on the communication plan and provided with “accurate, timely, and fact-based project information” (Allen & Hardin, 2008, p. 80). The communication to all stakeholders should be concise, focused and sell all parties involved on the purpose of the project and, more importantly, why they are committing resources and funding.
As Kotter (2006) points out, many projects fail because of paralyzed leadership with a lack of buy-in, urgency, and commitment due to inadequate information and communication.
Thorough and regular communication seems to be the crux of successful project management the answer to many strategies of dealing with negative stakeholder influences.
I hope your future projects are a more positive experience for you.
References
Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97. Copyright by Springer-Verlag, New York. Used by permission via the Copyright Clearance Center.
Kotter, J. P. (2006). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. In Gallos, J. V. (Ed.), Organization development: A Jossey-Bass reader (pp. 239-251). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kat,
ReplyDeleteI identified clients as one of the key stakeholders that could definitely lead to scope creep--by having disorganized clients this will inevitably lead to this problem---particularly if they don’t have a clear idea of what they really want or need for outcomes of the project. One of the critical elements of establishing a foundation for a successful project is having clear, well-thought out requirements.
One strategy to deal with clients is to spend appropriate time in the project initiation phase to “identify the strategic organizational implication of the project, set appropriate expectations for the cost and scope of the project, and seek to align the project objectives with its sponsoring organization’s goals and objectives” (Allen and Hardin, 2008, p. 79).
Clearly identifying the project objectives and how they align with the sponsoring organization’s goals is very important—if this is done then it is much easier to set appropriate expectations for cost and schedule.
Do you think if the program manager had done this it would have helped? As Allen and Hardin state “if this phase of the project is skipped or passed lightly over, the rest of the project will likely feel (and be) disorganized or haphazard” (2008, p. 80).
Once the project requirements have been identified another strategy is to document the project in a document like a Statement of Work and have the key stakeholders (client, project manager, ISD) sign the document to baseline the work scope. The SOW is “written confirmation of what a project will produce and the terms and conditions under which the project team will perform the work” (Portny et al, 2008, p. 42).
Like Karen, I hope your next PM steps up to take control of the role they are placed in.
References
Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.