How to deal with opposite agendas in a project management team? Which should be the key success factors in this context?

Hi Sergio,
Thanks for your views, I agree with you that this situation is very common in our daily work. Nevertheless I would like to emphasize the situation where we have several project managers working in a multi-company project. And in these cases, it could become somehow more complex to deal with. Therefore, I find important to figure out the key success factors to deal with it as soon as possible.
Best regards, NF

Hi Mark,
Thanks for your opinion, Yes, you are so right. In fact, the project team should have clear priorities and the project manager should make the project success a common goal for all stakeholders. The issue here is that sometimes we found ourselves before awkward situations, where there is a very thin line between the success for all (the project success) and the unsuccess for some. This remind me the Games Theory where in some cases if you decide for what is really good for you, you may end up worse.
Best regards, NF

That is the situation I am facing today. I am program manager for level 1 programs (the critical success factor for the organization) where internal/external people from more than 65 countries around the world are involved and providers that are giving us infraestructure, communication services (basically) that are critical components into the programs. So, I understood your situation. Then, what we did to deal with all that complexity is creating a framework (very simple, I was the author) focused on value generation. As "Lean style" we have point to eliminate wasted, objective points. And that is what we do.

Hi Nuno,

It sounds like the PMs on this project are all equal, there's no clearly defined PM with authority to direct other PMs in the project, and the PMs have different objectives. I've been in this situation before, and unless the PMs work together the project will likely fail, and the PMs will take the blame. I suggest you gather the PMs and explain the situation, then work out how you want to proceed. The only hope is for the PMs to agree on what goals they will pursue - if the PMs try to chase their own personal interests, they will each fail. It's possible for the PMs to achieve their individual goals in this project, but only if they do so by working in concert with the others.

Hi Sergio,
Thanks for your insights, as I could understand from both your comments, you identified two key success factors: the alignment of objectives reinforced by the sponsors of each stakeholder/partner, and; a framework focused on value generation, used as a hierarchy or chain of objectives, all of them contributing to the main project goal.
These are quite interesting also for my case, so thanks again for sharing your experience and for your contribution.
Best regards, NF

That´s right what we do. We have our objectives to achieve. Our focus is to achieve that. And we eliminate all wasted (no matter what it is) from the process to achieve that. On the other side, the organization has a win-win culture to work with our providers. For us, client is the next on the process chain no matter where they belongs to.

I'd say there are no PMs on this project. A PM directs others, and it appears no one on this project has the authority to do that. I'd love to see the Project Charter for this endeavor.

Hi Stéphane,
I can understand your point, it is really difficult for us and a great risk to the project, however I am convinced that it is possible as long as everyone understands each other position and goals, and if you could combine them to be aligned with the project main goal. But, you are right, it is tough and sometimes may arise some tension between us.
Best regards, NF,

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your contributions. In fact, the project has several PMs but we manage to define a clear distribution of responsibilities between us by defining several project streams that should concur to the overall project plan. We had to function as a PM team and we had to work out a clear commitment between us, so our different set of personal/company goals could be compatible to the project main objectives.
So when you said that there are no PMs, I have to agree with you, there is a PM team.
As a matter of fact, I have had similar experiences in the past, and in one particular case this distributed PM team structure was a complete disaster for the project as a whole since the PMs were not able to work together as a team. In the end the impact for the customer was tremendously negative in all project dimensions.
Best regards, NF