Your team is already overworked and when launch time approaches, the client comes to you with important request.What do you do? How do you approach your team ?
Your team is already overworked and when launch time approaches, the client comes to you with important request.What do you do? How do you approach your team ? Saving Changes...
Agree with M. Vergini, first you have to assess the impact of this new request (change) on the project then you can decide what to do. You also have to inform and engage the sponsor. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Agreed. And not like at anytime a request from the stakeholders would come as a surprise. Its how its managed and expectations are set. The team should do their due diligence in analyzing effort and impact, then present options and impacts to the stakeholders. Saving Changes...
Client expectation should be set at the onset of Project for any last moment change & it's impact on Project schedule, Cost. And keep this in writing. This will set the tone for communication for entire project. This will reduce unnecessary stress for you & your Team. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
What will the time to analyze do to the Go Live? We take for granted that we can always take time to do the impact analysis of suggested change requests. I would first want to tell the requestor what taking time away to do the analysis will cost the project.
...
1 reply by Anton Oosthuizen
Jun 19, 2019 1:20 AM
Anton Oosthuizen
...
Interesting point Stephane. My personal view and experience have taught me that our unwillingness to compromise upcoming milestones to address a 'now' problem actually does little or nothing to prevent us from compromising those milestones in any case. The natural course of action is to try and resolve issues such as scope change on the fly and in most cases this is possible but not always. Personally, I would rather sacrifice 1 hour now and be 2 hours late than to sacrifice nothing now and be 5 hours late because I did not take the time to understand the issue. Obviously, whether you take the time to analyze or not is dependent on many factors (as you pointed out) such as issue complexity, financial/political implication, etc.
Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
It’s not always beneficial or wise to take a raw request and dump it to a technical team for due-diligence, especially when the team is in the home stretch and/or the team is running on fumes. If the project does not have a change board or similar body then the PM should execute a "sanity check" review of the request, and make a preliminary determination regarding its value to the project before passing it on to the team for review and estimation.
The request may be obviously out-of-bounds, and if that is the case then the request should stop at the desk of the PM and not even make it to the technical team. On the flip side, the request coming from the owner may be of strategic value, however, if given directly to the technical team it may be prejudicially dismissed due to a multitude of emotionally leaning factors driven by the state of the project (i.e., near completion).
Regardless; the PM has a responsibility to the owner and to the technical team. Therefore, due-diligence is required of the PM in order to know his or her position on the request. Bottom Line: I would not approach the team without making a preliminary determination of what is in the best interest of the project. Saving Changes...
Thanks to all of you for sharing your useful points. Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
Jun 18, 2019 7:57 PM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
...
What will the time to analyze do to the Go Live? We take for granted that we can always take time to do the impact analysis of suggested change requests. I would first want to tell the requestor what taking time away to do the analysis will cost the project.
Interesting point Stephane. My personal view and experience have taught me that our unwillingness to compromise upcoming milestones to address a 'now' problem actually does little or nothing to prevent us from compromising those milestones in any case. The natural course of action is to try and resolve issues such as scope change on the fly and in most cases this is possible but not always. Personally, I would rather sacrifice 1 hour now and be 2 hours late than to sacrifice nothing now and be 5 hours late because I did not take the time to understand the issue. Obviously, whether you take the time to analyze or not is dependent on many factors (as you pointed out) such as issue complexity, financial/political implication, etc. Saving Changes...
Lukas DohnanskyProject manager, company planning| LOGIS a.s.Czechia
I would change a little bit a commentary of Sante.
First analyze with the team and then forward the information along with impact directly to investors.
At the end, it´s their money, so they need to take those risks and be aware of them! Rest of the issue is only belong to discussion with the team. Just always keep on mind what kind of manager you want to be, to add some more rework to already overworked team?! I mean, come on, give it all you can to change the mind of the client. This is always the best way in those cases. Constantly changing the projectplan according of mood of client is not our way of work! Saving Changes...
