One of my inherited projects has gone waaaay over budget and its time that I try and recover some costs. I would appreciate any advice on a format or template that helps me document this work outside the original scope, which can be passed onto the client.
I really have no idea how to approach this and would appreciate any advise at all.
Thanking you all.
BV Saving Changes...
Hmmm…. Tough spot to be in. It sounds like there is no existing change management plan in place. Your change management plan would outline how changes to scope are to be address and the process for authorizing the extra work. You can add one now and use it from here on out. That should not be too difficult.
The tricky spot is going back and having the client pay for work that is already done. There are a few problems here. One the cost over run will most likely be a surprise to the client. They hate surprises! I don’t blame them. Now it depends on the type of contract and relationship you have with the client. Is the contract fixed price, fixed price plus incentive, T&M. If it is fixed price, I think you are going to eat a lot if not most of it.
It will also depend how far into the project you are. It sounds like significant progress has been made already. I think your only saving grace may be that you have inherited the project. If you have not been there too long, then the fall guy has gone and you are there to save the project.
If you can answer some of these questions I will probably have a couple of suggestions. Saving Changes...
#1 question to answer; how was the expected scope of the project documented and agreed with the customer? Without a clearly documented and agreed original scope, any arguments about scope change are going to rapidly descend to "he said, she said" arguments which will not yield a positive result. #2 question - what Change Management processes exist? If you're lucky, some process was defined for managing changes, and you can try to pick up on that.
I agree with Robert, you are the fall-guy for somebody's failure to manage the scope, project, and customer relationship. Saving Changes...
