Like the pirate code they are more like guidelines, but these three principles have been crucial in keeping the projects I’ve been managing sailing smoothly. If I’m able to follow these three guidelines projects tend to go well, if one gets out of balance, it often all goes awry. It’s a balancing act that can take a little or a lot of work depending on the project and the various personalities involved. Keeping these three principles in your mind at all times though keeps the ship sailing.
Scope/Expectations
Making sure a clients expectations are in line with what you’ll be providing them is paramount. I usually set it once at the beginning of a project and then check in at various points during a project just to make sure we’re all still on the same page. Having a clearly defined job order that you can both refer to is crucial, especially if expectations aren’t lining up, but often you’ll still need to clarify things in greater detail. Not every client will know the difference between page description diagrams and wireframes.
Budget
When scope creep starts to slip in it’s important to go back to that job order, explain why this or that isn’t included and then talk budget. The phrase, “We’d be happy to do that for you we’d just need to add additional hours (or scope) to the project.” is a life saver. Explaining why something isn’t in the budget can be tricky but offering the ability to add to the scope of work to make sure you cover something that’s needed lets you not say no, but say yes we can we’ll just need a little more budget.
Schedule
Dates slip, it happens. What’s important is to address why they slipped, adjust the schedule to reflect the slips, and then move forward. I’ve been very lucky, it’s incredibly rare that any dates slip as a result of us, but when they do, a quick explanation why and then clearly defining the new schedule goes a long way.
I also like to try and have those who are working directly on a certain phase of the project manage themselves and their own deliverables. That way I’m only responsible for making sure the general project stays on track instead of having to worry about all of the individual milestones.
None of these guidelines are much more then common sense, but it’s easy to forget them when you’re in the trenches of a project. Just keeping them in my mind at all times though has really helped. Anyone else have some good guidelines they follow?
I like explaining what I am charging for. helps me to sleep easier as I know that I have been open about it..
Having been a project manager for a company on the client side (i.e. we bought websites), it is vitally important for the person/s with the purse strings to understand the scope. It has been my job to translate between the development and design company to my directors. Explaining why they can’t have something for that price is always painful, and it is always so much easier when design and client project managers are on the same page!
Zach: Agreed. It’s why we prefer when we can have the designer or developer talk directly to the client we do. There’s no need to add someone into the middle if you can avoid it. When it comes to talking numbers though bringing in the project manager or an account manager is almost unavoidable. We want to make sure the people doing work can focus on the work and also stay in good graces with the client.
This is a great list. Nothing ground breaking - but it’s good to remind yourself every once in a while that you’re on the right track.