Digvijay SinghProject Manager| Mastek LimitedPune, India
I couldn't find relevent information for managing e-Governance projects, although this domain basically requires varied practices based on government functional processes in different countries but I would like to know more on tackling presence of multiple stakeholders with reasonable power to screw the projects. There are more troublesome factors like transfer of sponsors, elections, change of government, delay in payments etc. Please share your knowledge if dealt with government projects. Saving Changes...
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Matthew StantonSenior Project Manager| www.energyone.com.auSydney, Nsw, Australia
I love the job but I am a very cynical project manager by nature. I have worked for 20 years accepting commercial priorities or government committees changing the direction of projects at the last minute. I just wanted to state up front just in case my following comments appear harsh or unreasonable.
In general, I find the higher the public or media interest in a project the more likely a change of government will result a change in a projects direction. This can be as superficial as a project name change with a light re-shuffling of the objectives right down to project cancellation. I have seen some projects run 250% over their scheduled completion dates because each new political master wanted to change and expand on the requirements. The contractor in this case made twice the amount of money they quoted on this project because of the price variations due to scope change.
I was working on a very large 2 year project in Europe where the government changed hands 6 Months prior to the end of the project. The project was independently audited and we had a new Minister for the monthly status presentation but public service representative remained the same and the project completed as planned.
Enough rambling; If I understand correctly the crux of your concern really comes down to the laws of the country you are dealing with, the termination and dispute clauses in the contract and the structure of the scheduled payment.
I have seen very reasonable contracts that hold the government client equally responsible to deliver BFI, BFE, input and approvals thus minimising the risk to the project manager and sub-contractors (sellers). I have also walked away from contracts in newer economies were the government insisted on transferring all risk onto the seller allowing the client, for example, to take 6 months to make an approval or provide feedback potentially destroying all hope of the successful delivery of a project and delaying all payments to the seller. Another factor to remember the best contract in the world is useless if the legal framework in the country will not provide a suitable and fair dispute resolution process.
It goes without saying apart from the commercial aspects of the contract and good intentions your should follow the advice of Sun Tzu in "The Art Of War".
“The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.”
This means you must follow best practice in project management. rigorously document stakeholder requirements, Confirm scope acceptance at every opportunity in writing and maintain a change control process.
I hope this helps in some way.
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Digvijay SinghProject Manager| Mastek LimitedPune, India
Thanks Matthew for your time in sharing the experience. It is helpful. Saving Changes...
