A tricky legal question, but almost everything is insured these days. Saving Changes...
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Mahabubur RahmanProject Manager Structures-Bridges| Department of Infrastructure, Government of Nothwest TerritoriesYellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada
It depend's on existing policies and procedures of the company a PM works for. Some professions (medical/engineering/law etc.) have strict regulations in place for losses or injuries (persons/properties) and if they prove to be caused due to any kind of acts or negligencies in their (professionals/licensees) duties and responsibilities. And eventually keeping liability insurance is a wise decision by them or the companies they work with. But for PMPs it may not always require.
If the company is doing project work for an external client, liability coverage might be include for all roles involved in the project and would be specified as part of the contract terms. I do recall in one of my early independent PM gigs with a large multinational they insisted on my getting $1 million in liability and general coverage. Needless to say, I built the costs of those premiums into my billing rate!
Because a PM is rarely writing code or hammering in nails, the context of litigation would be much greyer than where there is physical evidence of wrongdoing...
Kiron
Kiron
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Mar 29, 2018 7:09 AM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Wow they must have been serious about it, or really thought something might go wrong. Smart to bill it into the rate of course.
It depend's on existing policies and procedures of the company a PM works for. Some professions (medical/engineering/law etc.) have strict regulations in place for losses or injuries (persons/properties) and if they prove to be caused due to any kind of acts or negligencies in their (professionals/licensees) duties and responsibilities. And eventually keeping liability insurance is a wise decision by them or the companies they work with. But for PMPs it may not always require.
Thanks for your input Mahabubur. Saving Changes...
If the company is doing project work for an external client, liability coverage might be include for all roles involved in the project and would be specified as part of the contract terms. I do recall in one of my early independent PM gigs with a large multinational they insisted on my getting $1 million in liability and general coverage. Needless to say, I built the costs of those premiums into my billing rate!
Because a PM is rarely writing code or hammering in nails, the context of litigation would be much greyer than where there is physical evidence of wrongdoing...
Kiron
Kiron
Wow they must have been serious about it, or really thought something might go wrong. Smart to bill it into the rate of course. Saving Changes...
Pamela PenningtonIT Director| Ride ConnectionPhoenix, Az, United States
A large part of my experience is in government work. During my last job, I witnessed a project that was wasting as much as $250 mill dollars over a 7 year span. There has been a game of musical chairs regarding who will be the Project Manager of this project that everyone admits has been failing. I personally saw how they scapegoated the assigned project manager and put unfair pressures on that person to make the thing succeed, when it should have been scrapped long ago due to the vendor's lack of response and atrocious software development practices. The company should have been fired and brought up on legal action! Instead, the Project Manager was fired within 8 months. It almost seems like all PMP's should have their own liability insurance.
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1 reply by Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
Mar 29, 2018 5:07 PM
Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Pamela, that sounds like a nightmare. I did go for a job once where the biggest telco in Australia was looking for a program manager to replace the previous one as they weren't "engaging stakeholders effectively". This was a circa $200 million program. During the interview, after they had finished explaining all the issues with the program and the previous program manager departing, they probably weren't expecting my next question: "How many program managers have you had in this role over the past 12 months?" The answer: "5 in the last 8 months." I then spent the remainder of the interview explaining some possible issues they may have with their program and management rather than the program manager themselves. The odds of 5 program managers getting it all wrong just didn't make sense to me. Needless to say I didn't get the job lol, and probably wouldn't have lasted long if I did.
A large part of my experience is in government work. During my last job, I witnessed a project that was wasting as much as $250 mill dollars over a 7 year span. There has been a game of musical chairs regarding who will be the Project Manager of this project that everyone admits has been failing. I personally saw how they scapegoated the assigned project manager and put unfair pressures on that person to make the thing succeed, when it should have been scrapped long ago due to the vendor's lack of response and atrocious software development practices. The company should have been fired and brought up on legal action! Instead, the Project Manager was fired within 8 months. It almost seems like all PMP's should have their own liability insurance.
Pamela, that sounds like a nightmare. I did go for a job once where the biggest telco in Australia was looking for a program manager to replace the previous one as they weren't "engaging stakeholders effectively". This was a circa $200 million program. During the interview, after they had finished explaining all the issues with the program and the previous program manager departing, they probably weren't expecting my next question: "How many program managers have you had in this role over the past 12 months?" The answer: "5 in the last 8 months." I then spent the remainder of the interview explaining some possible issues they may have with their program and management rather than the program manager themselves. The odds of 5 program managers getting it all wrong just didn't make sense to me. Needless to say I didn't get the job lol, and probably wouldn't have lasted long if I did. Saving Changes...
