You are working on a project. Project is in execution phase. Your customer provide you feedback in one of the demo telling some changes. After analyzing the feedback, you came to conclusion that it is a CR. However, the customer is not accepting it as a CR and telling that it was already a part of original scope.
1. How to handle this situation? How you will handle situation?
2. What if the customer is not at all listening even if scope was signed off? May be the project/revenue is at risk due to this scenario?
3. Will you accept the CR? How to manage budget wrt inclusion of CR? Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Sonali,
this is a typical situation. Many project managers including myself ran into this. There are different ways out of this and some were mentioned already by our esteemed colleagues. Getting back to the contract/SOW might be the safest way to cover your ass and kill the project, as you might end up in litigation and lawyers on both sides take over the arguing.
Getting back to the purpose of the project is in my view the best way. You should strive to have a trusted partnership with the client and be able to show him your constraints and understand his. Together you will find a solution.
As to my case some decades ago: Had a contract SOW of 11 pages for a fix price and created 2000 pages of requirements jointly with the client. Then I asked a lawyer of my company, which of the 2000 pages are not included in the 11. They found none. Then the budget ran out and I had an excellent lawyer negotiating with the client: do you want to have lawsuit or a fair joint project. Client doubled the fix price and got his product delivered. I was not fired.
The problem might be how to deal with bad contracts and these are all over the place, sales guys get payed for them and project managers deliver. Saving Changes...
In the IT infrastructure service provider world, I recall projects where the sales team oversold the project, even before the project manager had time to look at the requirements. This is quite common where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Saving Changes...
Johnson KoorothRisk Analyst| Jacobs, CanadaOshawa, Ontario, Canada
Looks like a very situational question. Have a very good assessment of the environment. Review the Scope statement and contract with the customer. Demonstrate the impact on Cost and Schedule. The typical things that you would normally do. Be on the positive side to embrace a change and do not underestimate the influence of the Customer on the success of the Project. Escalate the issue. Saving Changes...
