We have subcontracted a LARGE project to a 3rd party who have their own project manager. It's the first time I have been in this role and I am finding it hard where the boundary is of his project mgmt and where my role starts. Does anyone have any thoughts? Saving Changes...
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Hans RobbersSenior Director| SalesforceVlissingen, Netherlands
Anony,
You are responsible for the complete scope of the project, from arranging user involvement in requirements workshops, testing but also preparing the organisation for the change. Most of the times user training will also be a part of your role. dependent on the scope of the project you will have these or more areas of activities to manage. The above activities are not extensive.
The pm of the subcontractor is responsible for the part you sub contracted and will deliver and reports to you. When you or he has a change in plan it will affect each other, dependencies. If the change is due to your activities he will raise a cr and ask fr additional funding. When has a change of plan you have to see if you can handle the change and if not the consequences are for the sub-contractor.
The type of contract will determine how formal you will follow the cr procedure.
Hopes this helps
Hans Saving Changes...
Ketan KarkhanisKetan A Karkhanis| CiscoSunnyvale, Ca, United States
You are accountable for everything, but the 3 rd party is responsible for their component
The boundary is almost invisible . Your customers dont care who is developing the app, but they will look to you for the solution.
( I am assuming you have to lead the project and manage work via this 3rd party)
A few tips:
-Dont get too anal about chalking out a RACI for each granular task. Keep in mind you do need a good RACI
-Quickly write down a list of things the 3 rd party can do which can cause an adverse impact to your project ( Risk identification in PM speak). Take steps to ensure they do not happen
-Communicate like crazy.. Do not assume this 3rd party understands everything.
-Give the 3rd party some face time with your projects customers. i.e Help them realize the business impact and get their skin in the game
-When things go wrong and they will, take a pragmatic approach.. dont blame the 3rd party by deafult
-Ensure you have a good supply of Asprin handy :-) Saving Changes...
Joe MooneySenior Technology Project Manager| Independent ConsultantOviedo, Fl, United States
You are the "One throat to choke" for the client and your sub is accountable to you. Depending on the relationship with the sub, and their capabilities, this could be a smooth project or a typical project :).
PMI and SEI have well documented practices for working with subs and I suggest that you reference their recommendations and build an approach that works with your prime/sub relationship. I will suggest that you establish a formal service level agreement and communication plan to eliminate surprises.
The sub is your resource but you are ultimately accountable. If something happens that is their fault, that won't necessarily matter to the end client - so make sure that you partner with them to eliminate the "fault" scenario.
Saving Changes...
Digvijay SinghProject Manager| Mastek LimitedPune, India
Your contract/ageement should properly set the distribution of roles and responsibility but I experienced something will miss out, now you need plan your execution methodology properly to handle the gray areas, they could be one of the points shown here:
(1) Who will pay for the travel for meetings etc, what is the limit?
(2) Check if any license requirement for the work done by subcontractor, this is very important because the final product will go to end customer.
(3) Consider sub contractor project manager as your subordinate, so you should instruct him what is required from him, although he has one more reporting chain in his organization, you should keep proper contact/relation with his boss as well, this will help you to do soft escalation through phone, email etc.
(4) You should be the overall incharge of the project, he should send weekly report to you and after verification you can include his delivery status in your weekly report for the customer.
(5) Don't try to control directly the vendor team members reporting to vendor PM.
(6) The conflict of reponsibility distribution also depends where exactly vendor team is working, if they are sitting in your organization, you can directly control them and check the status whenever you want but if they are doing the project work from their organization it may cause more troubles, you should check IP rights clauses, security conditions at vendor premises, you need to create audit plan for the vendor etc.
I am not sure whether I directly replied your questions but shared the experience as we are stting in the same boat.. Saving Changes...
Elyse NielsenSenior Project Manager| Ascension Health Information ServicesHaines City, Fl, United States
Hi,
Great discussion and suggestions by all. I'd recommend moving forward as laid out below. My additional suggestions are as follows:
1. Clarify and document Roles and Responsibilities.
2. Obtain a clear escalation path with the vendor's organizations.
3. Make sure you have some classic vendor management tactics in your project plan.
