1. Over promise, under deliver: Your sales person is there to sell. He or she gets paid based on the amount of revenue he is bringing in for you. As a result, many sales reps are willing to promise the sky during the sales process, only to have your project team end up with too many tasks that are difficult to fulfil. As result, you end up with an unhappy client and an unhappy team.
How do you make sure your sales team does not over promise?
Every proposal must be reviewed by a delivery team before sending it out to a client. That ensures that there is a buy in from the delivery team who are responsible for the bulk of the work.
2. Fix the bid on the project before defining scope: Let’s face it, every clients wants to know how much a project is going to cost before signing a contract. It makes business sense. But from a consulting company perspective, committing to time and a budget before defining all the work involved in the project spells disaster.
How to deal with a client who insists on getting a fixed bid?
Bid the portion that we know. As for the unknown work, we tell the client that we will be able to bid that better after work is completed on the initial phases.
3. Assign inexperienced project managers to run a critical project: Too many people think project management is an easy task. As a result, they are willing to assign green project managers to critical projects. Some do succeed, but many fail.
If you have to assign an inexperienced PM to a project then make sure you have someone to mentor, advise them and monitor their progress.
4. Careless management of project scope: I am a firm believer that the scope must be actively managed on a project. Too many consultants are willing to go out of their way to please their client. That is great attitude to have. But too many clients abuse that attitude. As result, your team members will get exhausted, and you will end up doing a lot of free work.
5. Fight with the client over every little project change request: This is the complete opposite of the above point. Teams not willing to change anything within project scope without a change request will leave a bad taste in the client mouth. Be flexible but maintain the agreed upon time etc.
How to deal with project scope?
Consultants need to know when to give in and do small changes and when to ask for a change of scope requirements
6. Starting implementation prior to closing the requirements phase: Regardless to the nature of the project, no actual work should start before fully understanding all of the client’s requirements. I have been on projects where code was being released to production and requirement documents and design sessions were still going on.
How to deal with clients who are not able to close requirement and design phases?
- Your project management team must plan an effective role in guiding the client through those phases to help bring them to a close
- Client top management must have full support of project goals and should help direct its team members to move forward
- Make sure the client is aware of any schedule slippage or increase in project scope due to delays in gathering requirements.
7. Lack of transparency with the client: At some point or another, hiding some truth from the client seems like a good idea. Whether it is scheduled delays, actual implementation details, staffing issues, or anything else, it is important to be open with the client.
What to do if you are faced with a difficult choice between informing the client or not?
In my experience, 8 times out of 10, the client will find out what it is you are trying to hide. Now, that does not mean that you should run to the client with every little problem you face. I think you should let the client know about anything that might have an impact on the project time or budget.
8. Let the client manage the project: The client can have as many project managers as they would like, but you should staff your own project manager on each engagement. One of the important roles a project manger plays is “isolating” the project team from the client and managing scope. There is a clear conflict of interest when the project is being managed by the client.
What to do if the client insists on managing the project themselves?
Be honest about the conflict of interest that may arise. Remember you do not have to staff a full time project manager on every project. Smaller engagements can be have a project manager staffed at 50%.
9. Cut project time estimates or staffing levels without cutting project scope: There is always a pressure to deliver projects faster utilizing less resources. Resist the temptation to deliver the same amount of work with fewer resources just because the client asked you to do so. Every project has three angles to it: Resources, time, and work. If you increase work, you will have to increase either time or resources to support the additional work.
10. Over staffing a project so no one is sitting on the bench: resist the temptation to over staff a project just to make sure that your resources are billable. This can be tempting, especially when the client is too trusting and doesn’t does not have the know-how or the domain expertise that your team possesses. In the long run, clients will discover who is fully allocated on the project and who is not. They will discover that they are paying for resources without getting a nothing in return. This will cause future relationships with this your client to turn sour and it will impact the project negatively.
Tags: , consulting, consulting mistakes, delivery problems, project management, scope
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