As I am approaching to closure of a project, I have a fair amount of item listed by Customer that need to be signed off before final agreement.
I have two main issues:
1. The list is continuously expanding. Being the project the delivery of a turn-key industrial plant, the Client keeps on adding up snags upon snags;
2. There is no metric to agree on the completion of items as some of the items are can arguably be defined as "deliverables"
What is your suggestion?
Thanks in advance,
Alberto Saving Changes...
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Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Normally, you would have had an acceptance criteria for each deliverable and for the overall project.
Without those, you have to rely on the agreed scope, perhaps as shown in your schedule, to say what is in or out of scope.
Sometimes these things are imposed by the organization. For example, you may not have been aware of what is necessary to hand off your project's deliverables to the organization that will maintain.
Treat each demand as a change request and put it through your change control process and CCB. Saving Changes...
Ups, as Stéphane pointed it seems that you don't have acceptance criteria for the deliverables.
Then, isn't' an easy situation to deliver. My first recommendation in "close" the list, said NO to the client review the scope and use it to said NO. You'll need the buy-in of your SterCo or Sponsor or PMO office.
We aren't aware of your timings, but maybe you'll have time to put in place the correct procedure.
Your contract should have two acceptance, a provisional acceptance and a final acceptance, that what is usually the case in construction.
The provisional acceptance should be define in your contract for what condition are required most test on electrical and mechanical service etc.
The client would have a list of deficiency that will increase has the exploration of the building progress.
You need to validate all items in the list against the contract criteria, reject or accept the items according to the contract.
If metric are not clear you might have to make the necessary work then make a claim for them! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
If those items are not inside the scope then they does not exists. And if those items were not written in a piece of paper then those does not exists. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
I have had experience in a similar vein where I have had to go back to my Project Management Plan specifically in the section of "in-scope" and "out of scope" items and point it out to the customer that what they are requesting , wasn't a part of the agreed scope. Some organizations may even go a little further in having a separate scope statement and scope management plan. Even after this, there are chances that the Customer, having accepted the product in operation, forgets about what was to be delivered. This is perfectly alright from their point of view , because in the end, the Customer is focusing on and expecting a quality product to be delivered.
The Project sponsor could be approached and you could re-confirm their understanding of the original scope . Failing this , as Stephane alluded in his post, you could approach the Project Steering committee with the Change Request because :- 1) Your original project team would have been disbanded by now so you may potentially need to renegotiate their commitment from the resource managers 2) You may have been reassigned to a new project and you need to renegotiate your time and effort with the new Project Owner 3) There are potentially cost implications because you may need external resources and or equipment to fulfill the additional work
Note:- The Triple constraint of Time/Cost/Scope is likely to be affected here. All your Project deliverables have been baselined at this stage and there is a serious risk of this additional activity having no traceability in any of the project documents. Therefore it also requires a documentation update/potential re-baselining etc for the additional work that you are undertaking.
If you present your case and it's impacts to the stakeholders that are requesting the change and the Steering Committee, I am sure you will receive clear direction and guidance on the way forward. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
There is acceptance and handing over criteria that should be agreed upon contractually from the beginning of the project as my fellow colleagues mentioned. If this wasn't established then you need to deal with this politically and strike a balance to keep the client satisfied within limits of course. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
From Point 2 , . There is no metric to agree on the completion of items as some of the items are can arguably be defined as "deliverables" of Alberto, it seems like there was no acceptance criteria defined . Therefore as you rightly say Rami, looks like there might need to be a Political intervention.
Seeking involvement and backing from senior leadership of the Project Steering committee or using one or more conflict management techniques with the client maybe other courses of action. Saving Changes...
I do thank all of you for your time spent answering back: it is highly appreciated and your contents cleared the doubts I had over the subjects.
The project (an industrial turn-key plant) changed the scope over a major deliverable after a discussion with Customer on whose fault was on some baseline data: we accepted the change that included a major redesign of a part of the system and some collateral snags, without tracing the new boundaries of this scope change. In this situation it seems that all of the claims seems to be legit from Customer's Side as it is just the Client.
Just as example, I have been requested to re-seed part of the lawn we used as storage area to regain the former situation but there is no former status recorded to which I can compare to! Should I proceed and plant also some flower?
Thanks to your indication, I know I am right opposing to some points that weren't agreed upon or in the scope: I'll use this situation as a test for my political skills.
my company agreed to proceed on finishing the snag-list as Customer stopped the payments. We were "forced" to invest time and resources to identify solutions for problems that popped out later during Spring and we were accounted for.
This nightmare will never end. Saving Changes...
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