Welcome to the Project Manager Clinic - Christmas Edition Issue 5

November-December 2023 Issue 5

Susanne Moore

#Strategy, #ProgramDirector #BusinessTransformation, #Sociologist, #Technologist, #Author, #GenderEconomist, #KeynoteSpeaker, #MAICD

Final Newsletter for 2023!

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are looking forward to a fantastic 2024! You may be wondering why this newsletter is so late? Well I fell off my pushbike midway through November 2023 and rolled down an embankment. The end result was a broken right arm which made it difficult to type, but all back on track now and looking forward to a project positive 2024!

In this months edition;

1. Outcomes from the Project Manager Live Chat on 16 November 2023
2. Next Project Manager Q and A Live Chat on Youtube
3. Project Management Tips for Tradies in under 10 minutes, next planned episode. Subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the next episode.

1. Project Manager Live Chat

In this live chat session, I discuss a number of project management issues that are common. These include the typical Stakeholder Management conversation which is, in my view the most difficult part of project management success. This is because you just can't tell who you are going to have as your stakeholders and how they may respond to any given issue or project approach. As there is a huge amount of information already out there on this subject, I'm not going to go into it in this newsletter, however it will be the next subject in the Tradie Tips in under 10 minutes segment coming soon.

In this newsletter I will expand on the Contractor and Scope Management portion of the live chat as this is another area where I get asked by project managers and sponsors to work on a solution when contractors are slow to deliver. But first, here are the links to each of the segments in the live chat at the approximate minute it appears in the video;

• 1.46 Stakeholder Management and getting better buy in
• 5.33 Status Reporting - frequency, delivery type and what information to provide
• 8.04 Schedule and deliverable management
• 15.40 Contractor and Scope Management (contractors slow to deliver)
• 23.59 Sponsor hard to get a response
• 32.24 Project is too big or complex for my organisationMy Planning Process

My approach to Contractors that are not delivering

I know many project managers will immediately put their technical pm hat on and go to #procurement plans or even look at the #technical solution and #deliverables but what I tend to do is firstly go to the #contract and look at the agreed deliverables. This will be the baseline set of agreed deliverables and may well have changed over the course of the project. If so, you should have evidence of any agreed changes to scope, schedule or even a contract variation. I can tell you from experience if you ever wondered if change requests are worth spending time on, then this situation is a key area where they become invaluable so make sure you always keep good records of any changes.

So my key actions in the situation are;

1. Go back to the contract with your vendor and get a common understanding (again) of what those deliverables are. Whilst this might sound very basic, keep in mind that people change over the course of projects, particularly long projects where you have resources moving in and off your project team. Same of course happens to your contractor so sometimes things can get lost in translation and need to be highlighted again to gain common agreement. I'm often amazed at how many projects put the contract in the drawer and don't keep it as a living document where all changes can be traced back if needed. Contracts also give you some good information on how to deal with issues and problems if things start to go off the rails.
2. A lack of consistent and clear change requests and variations, properly agreed with the contractor and your stakeholders may mean that your contractor is not motivated, or they don't fully understand the deliverable change. By re-clarifying the contracted deliverables including time frames and payment schedules, you will get an improved insight into what is happening. In my experience it's far better to work with any contractors as part of a team rather than keeping them at arms length and then blaming them when things go wrong. Communication is usually the best solution to most things I find.
3. If you have contractors that are continually not performing then you need to go back to the contract and work through the performance criteria including how they are being paid and when. They will have signed up for this at the start and I find that many project managers and their sponsors hesitate to use the mechanism to manage outcomes, however its a key legal lever and a renewed focus on contractor performance and KPI's is often very productive for all parties.
4. Bear in mind that other factors that present themselves during the course of the project can come into play and in my experience, lack of delivery by a contractor can be due to a complex blend of issues and actions that all converge at once. Talking through and dismantling the issues preventing delivery can be very productive but its not easy. Much of the work that I have done in my career is unraveling contractor/client relationships and working out a strategy to move forward.
5. You must be reporting these things in your status reports otherwise you will have more issues. Real and informative status reports are vital particularly when you get to this area of difficulty.
6. I make it very clear to my contractors what I expect in terms of status and communication right at the start of the project and find that this works well with consistent messaging and communication to stakeholders both within your organisation and the contractors.
7. Worse case you go into contract negotiations and moratorium. Go to the live chat video to see more about this around the 19 minute mark where I give a real life example of this type of senario.
8. Finally, your contractors are part of your projects success and if you cant help them be successful then it impact everyone.

If this is something that your organisation needs advice on at the moment, please contact me at susannemoore@pmclinic.com.au to find out how I might be able to assist you.

3. Project Manager Live Chat - 26 January 2024

Subscribe on the channel now for the PM Q and A Live Chat scheduled for 16 January 2024 at 16.30 (4.30pm EST) where I will be taking questions about current project issues you might have and working through to a solution. In the meantime, I would love to hear your feedback about project issues you are concerned with so we can put on the list for discussion.

Subscribe to the Live Chat feed to get notified for the session at this link

4. Project Management Tips for Tradies in under 10 minutes

Next session will be on Stakeholder Management. For tradie's, they have the added complexities of managing private citizens who may not have the benefit of understanding project management. They may be paying for a renovation, an installation of a product or service and just want it delivered. On the other hand, many tradie's starting out don't have the skill or experience in relationship negotiation and what we would call Stakeholder Management. Stay tuned for dates for this next session

See Episode 1 of Tradie Tips in under Ten Minutes - Setting up for Success

5. For more Information about the Project Manager Clinic

For more information on sessions to come, follow the link to the PRESENTATION - Intro to the PM Clinic and SUBSCRIBE to the channel.

6. Join the Project Manager Clinic Group on LinkedIn

Join the Project Manager Clinic LinkedIn Group here and take part in the discussions on how we can improve our project management technique.

7. Want to know more about services from the PM Clinic?

Contact me today at susannemoore@pmclinic.com.au

8. Interested in participating in the Project Manager Clinic YouTube sessions?

If you are interested in participating as an speaker, author, you have a project issue to suggest for a Youtube video discussion, please let me know at susannemoore@pmclinic.com.au

Thanks for reading this newsletter! Till next time, have a great project day!

Susanne Moore

Links

1. See the Project Manager Clinic introduction video on Youtube here
2. Episode 2 Conversation with an Expert Topic - "Unlocking Success: The Essential Guide to Hiring an experienced Project Manager" here
3. My Three Rules of Project Management here
4. Tips for Tradies in under 10 Minutes here
5. Project Manager Clinic Linkedin Group here
6. Is it Me or is it Them - Conversation with an Expert here
7. Contact me about any of my consulting services by emailing me - susannemoore@pmclinic.com.au

About Susanne Moore

I am an accomplished Program Director and Executive Manager with over 20 years’ experience across a diverse range of industries and sectors, including large scale software development and business transformation programs. I am a professional speaker and strategic thinker with extensive consulting experience including the design, review, assessment and implementation of strategies and delivery of large scale programs and projects.

I was a Founding member of the Project Management Institude (PMI) in Sydney Australia. Serving as an early Founding Member and Past President of the #PMI Queensland Branch, I was on several international project management committees and have spoken on project management at an international level several times. I continue to work in Project Management and Business Transformation and am keen to pass on my experience through the Project Manager Clinic, trading as PM Clinic.

As well as Program Management, Business Transformation and Information Technology I am a Sociologist, Gender Economist, author, and international speaker.

#projectmanagement, #project, #management, #stakeholders, #businesstransformation

Published by

Susanne Moore

#Strategy, #ProgramDirector #BusinessTransformation, #Sociologist, #Technologist, #Author, #GenderEconomist, #KeynoteSpeaker, #MAICD