Riad AlhammoudProject management| LanganAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
In weekly progress meeting with sponsor and contractor, consultant's PM attended the meeting with quantity surveyor on his team. After the meeting - the PM informed Qunatity surveyor to prepare the minutes and this will follow in future projects.
Document controller, technical manager completed internally that is wrong procedure as the DC should prepare minutes and technical Mg should attend as well to respond to any technical queries.
Who is correct PM or DC and Technical Mg? Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Manuel PerezProject Management Coordinator| Las Vegas Valley Water DistrictNorth Las Vegas, Nv, United States
When you prepare your project management plan, it should include the communication plan. That plan should define the forms and type of communication and who are the recipients. In the responsibility matrix it will indicate who is informed, who is responsible, and who is accountable. Saving Changes...
It's a bit difficult to follow your question and various roles involved.
Typically, I would expect the project PM to run the meeting and publish the minutes. That gives them to control of how the decisions and meeting outcome are worded. That ability to characterize the discussions can be powerful.
I as a PM would write the minutes and either review them with the technical manager prior to publishing them to make sure the technical aspects are correct. Alternatively, if I am pretty sure I understand the technical details, I will publish the minutes with a statement "Please contact the undersigned with any questions, corrections, or additions." Then i would amend the minutes if there were corrections required after the fact. if people don't provide objections or corrections, then everyone agrees to the meeting record by default.
I don't know what a quantity surveyor is, but they shouldn't be publishing minutes if they're neither responsible for managing the plan, nor the technical details. Similarly a document coordinator is an expert on the documentation standards, not whether the technical content is correct. Even if I had a PM assistant writing the minutes for me, I would review them and make changes as required myself to ensure everyone involved gets the correct information. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Riad,
the communications plan could include specifics of meetings mgmt.
The one who writes the minutes controls the narrative, so meeting minutes lend you some power. Same to the one who controls who is invited and attending.
Attendance should depend on the role and what they contribute to the purpose of the meeting (be informed, involved in decisions, verify statements ..).
There is no right or wrong here, I recommend to do some meeting mgt training to minimize waste. Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
Project Progress Meetings are called, chaired and minuted/documented by the Project Manager. That being said I'm not convinced that these should be weekly - try monthly when there may something to talk about.. Weekly meeting are usually much more focused on specific project details within task teams - design, material deliveries, trades issues, specific site access, etc. Taking a half-day out of everyone's weekly schedule seems ineffective especially considering prep time, socializing, follow-up minutes review and corrections - when is anyone expected to actually do their assignments?
The communication plans needs to get tough on meetings - each meeting type has to have a defined objective and be structured to achieve that objective with project efficiency in mind. No hangers-on, no observers, no tourists. You want to know what's going on - read the minutes!
Having worked in a government organization for a few years sometimes it seemed a project's purpose was to have meetings rather than the other way around - the purpose of any meeting is to facilitate delivering a project. Saving Changes...
