TROUBLED PROJECTS AND DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS
During a recent conference at my company I had this interesting question:
What can I do when my project is in trouble, my customer is a state owned entity and my
customer’s sponsor doesn’t cooperate at all to put the project back in track?
Well, first of all, government or state owned entities are very difficult customers. Usually
their projects are the result of a non very well structured feasiblity process and during
the public bidding process your company accepts their rules, even your company has
to agree to the customer’s contract terms and conditions.
Second, the person that is in charge of the project from the customer’s side is more a
contract “watching man” than a real project’s sponsor. This person, in most of the cases,
will be taking a close look to the contract’s terms and conditions and will compare them
against your actions. If you don’t meet any of the contractc’s T&Cs you may expect a
penalty warning rather than a good idea to help the project.
With this landscape, if your project is in trouble you have to be very clever to manage
this situation.
In my experience, you will need to take good care of:
1. Document, document and document: You need to focus on making all communications
official. Always keep records of meeting minutes with all the attendees signatures, keep your
issues log updated and distributed accordingly, ensure that you have documented records
for all the deliverables already accepted.
2. Focus on change management: Don’t accept changes, in good faith, trying to buy customer’s
mercy. This will only add costs and more risks to your project and if your troubles continue
your customer won’t help you anyway… they have a contract to watch…they are public
employees that can even go to jail if don’t follow the rules…
3. Memorize your project’s contract: When in trouble, you need to be well prepared to face
customer’s requirements and demands. In a contract you have rights too!!
4. Keep a project HARC up to date: A HARC…Hazard Analysis and Risk Control is a
powerful tool when in trouble and even more when your customer is a government company.
This will help to keep you and your team focused on the top priority issues to solve.
And finally, follow your Project Management processes. For sure you will see how this will
reward your efforts.
JD
