I’m working with a vendor who we just sent a contract with to take over some of our infrastructure. It is on them to deliver so they are taking ownership of the project and I am serving as the project manager on our side. However, they are a new startup company and don’t actually have a PMO and it’s the pre-sales account manager who’s doing the project management. We were told internally to allow them to manage the project. However, the project plan they delivered is not very detailed, has ambiguous task and does not give us confidence in their delivery. We are accountable on our end to ensure that this project delivers. What is some advice to help this vendor mature in their project management but not take over the project we’ve provided directions on how to perform a work breakdown structure that they find that administratively intense and micromanagement. Any advice is welcome.
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Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
I would avoid taking over the vendor’s project management. The more useful boundary may be between governing their delivery and prescribing how they manage it internally.
From the client side, I would agree on the information and interfaces needed to govern the engagement: clear deliverables and acceptance criteria, meaningful milestones, dependencies, responsibilities, risks, decision rights and escalation paths, and sufficient evidence of progress. If a particular WBS structure is not contractually required, the vendor can retain discretion over how it organizes its internal work.
That preserves supplier autonomy without requiring the client to accept ambiguity. It also avoids masking a capability gap by gradually managing the work on the vendor’s behalf.
If the vendor cannot provide sufficient delivery assurance once those expectations are clear, I would no longer treat this primarily as a project management maturity issue. It becomes a supplier performance and contract governance issue. Saving Changes...
I try to work closely with them and explain the expectations. This is a team work, however, other tools and techniques are out there that may end up replacing the vendor. Saving Changes...
Ask them to incorporate measurable milestones and deadlines into their own plan format instead of mandating a WBS. Then, ensure accountability through regular checkpoint reviews.
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Md RahmanProject Manager| The Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)Sydney, Nsw, Australia
My advice would be quite closer to Luis i.e., clear deliverables and acceptance criteria, meaningful milestones, dependencies, responsibilities, risks, decision rights and escalation paths, and sufficient evidence of progress. As a client PM your responsibility would be to ensure the governance of the agreed delivery approach. Saving Changes...
ALI ALQAHTANIProgram Manager| MINISTRY OF DEFENSE (MOD) | PROCUREMENT AND ARMAMENT AGENCYRiyadh, Saudi Arabia
I completely understand where you're coming from, since you're on the hook for a result you don't fully control the process for. Instead of asking them to adopt a full framework they see as heavy admin, try narrowing your asks down to a few things that really matter. The biggest one is clear acceptance criteria for each major deliverable, so there's no room left to argue about what "done" actually means. Add a shared risk and dependency log that both sides update regularly, not just something you're asking them to fill out for you. Tie your check ins to the actual delivery or payment milestones in the contract instead of a general recurring meeting, that gives you solid contractual footing if something slips, rather than looking like you're hovering over their work. And if they keep pushing back on building a work breakdown structure, offer to build a simple, stripped down version together in one working session, based on their real deliverables. Sometimes the resistance is really about not knowing how to do it quickly, not about rejecting the idea itself. The goal is protecting your delivery outcome without ending up doing their project management job for them. Saving Changes...
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