Conversation on “Saying No” topic
Posted: January 12th, 2009 | Tags: Dealmaking, Negotiation, Project Manager skills | 3 Comments »
A really interesting discussion has started to develop here at Crossderry between Paul Ritchie & Pawel Brodzinski. The main point focuses around do we really say No to our clients?
I have posted my response here.
To summarize my views:
1. The client’s view is important. Be sure that you manage all expectations. Stated and implied.
2. Any Professional Services Project Manager has more than one customer to keep happy. As stated by Paul in one of his follow-up comments.
3. The way to bridge between Customer Satisfaction and Scope Management includes good negotiation skills. Most PMs do not have this skill.
4. The Professional Services Organizational also need to support the PM by allowing her/him to come up with creative solutions to project challenges. Are your PMs empowered to do this?
5. Any Professional Services company must jealously guard it’s portfolio against bad projects. The costs of one bad project will erode the profit of several good projects. This should also include the pipeline of future projects, thus the need for good selection criteria in you Portfolio Management process. Avoidance is cheaper than cure!
[...] An alternative to the “Yes, but.. ” answer Filed under: PM Skills, Project Management — sklee @ 12:43 pm Tags: Dealmaking, Negotiation, Project Manager skills Over on PPMNG Andy Kaufman has started a discussion on How to say “No” (Without saying “No”). This is in line with my current discussion here. [...]
Managing a protfolio is always a tricky thing. If I look only from a perspective of development/project management team I’d like to have only project which align well with the current portfolio. I wouldn’t want to wander far from my safe base.
When I use my business manager hat I always try to look deeper. A project which looks like a non-existent-margin one can bring other values. Satisfaction of the customer who will come to order another big project. First step in new product area which will allow us to gain valuable experience. Doing a project for the client for the first time which will effect in references and possibly a market expansion. The list of possible reasons is long.
In many cases typical PM or a developer would give me an evil eye and ask “Why the heck we’re going to do that?” Until they get whole business perspective it probably doesn’t make much sense.
Anyway, I agree that choosing bad project, which can’t be justified with reasonable business arguments, is well, a really bad choice. I went through that in one of my previous companies where reluctancy to bury one of the product lines resulted in never ending list of project failures talking both about quality and money.
Hi Pawel,
Yes, we agree on portfolio management. The aim of portfolio management is not to have a 100% safe portfolio. This will imply no growth in most companies. Like a tortoise we need to stick our heads out if we want to move. We should not avoid risk in our portfolios but manage it. Most people do not understand this difference.
The aim is to have a balanced portfolio with enough growth (risk) and sufficient Safe work to ensure economic success at the same time.
Who said it would be easy?