Over the years, I have worked on a number of fixed price technology projects where there has been a direct impact to my ability to meet deadlines due to delayed dependency deliverables from my Customer.
This could take place at a number of project stages, such as delays in reviewing or signing off documents, or more frequently when too much time is taken to UAT delivered code. In most cases I have to scramble to reassign resources or do battle to convince the Customer that these delays are essentiall change requests on top of the current FP scope (seldom easily done !) While I can inlude a statement in my PID to highlight this risk, it can be very difficult to define all scenarios where dependency slippage can take place, and even more difficult to convince a customer that a specific occurance was covered by the PID.
Can anyone help with advice on how I can implement a risk management process that will help me avoid burning days on Fixed Price contracts that are "not my fault" ?
Ken:
This is a tough one but hang in there. As many others have suggested, risk is only one area to focus on as well as your approach to the project. You got some great tips to make a checklist for yourself (hint).
I'll just add a few more tips to consider:
Build in contingency into your schedule; ask for good estimates from your team.
It's helpful to have a product lead and business lead if you have the resources. These resources will be tracking the development, business requirements traceability to the product deliverables and help maintain the review cycle and final acceptance.
These two resources in place will help you focus on the project , risk, issues, contract and change management to include a work authorization and acceptance criteria for all deliverables.
Are you building in hybrid methodologies to help improve customer interaction and delivery? Consider your approach; small adjustments may make a big difference for the team and final delivery.
You should also consider doing a SWOT analysis with the team as it will further strengthen the overall risk assessement for the project.
Also, the customer or business lead will need to accept accountability for the delivering of the final product so make sure you make a RACI Matrix in the very beginning of the project. It will help your team if they better understand their roles.
Make your team meetings effective and ask for a + or - at the end of each meeting. You begin to get some real time feedback to fend off problems before they become issues or risks.
Your organizational, communication and leadership skills will be challenged in this type of project; carve out time for yourself each day/week to reflect on what went well and what didn't.
Make a checklist and work on small improvements through out the project. Saving Changes...
