How does Sales know?
It is the responsibility of both Sales and PMO/delivery
organization management to meet and begin the educational discussions. Yes, I
said both management teams must educate each other. What Sales management must
educate the PMO/delivery organization management team on is what Sales is
hearing from the customer base. What does the customer base want? What is important
to them? What the PMO/delivery organization management must educate the sales
management team on is what they can deliver based on the current schedule, and
most importantly, how does the PMO/delivery organization fill the customer base’s
needs? Let’s assume that the question is not whether the PMO/delivery
organization can deliver what the customers are requesting. The most likely
discussion should be the challenges in scheduling projects.
What to discuss at management level meetings
There must be some ground rules:
First, Sales will bring only those qualified sales that are at
least 80% to 85% certain. The delivery
organization/PMO does not have the time to discuss anything below that certainty
level.
Second, the delivery organization/PMO cannot shy away from
being creative with regards to scheduling. In other words, the delivery/PMO can
schedule multiple project kickoffs during subsequent weeks. Not all projects will have five straight days
of project work for the project team. Most likely, there will be more than one
project team, and more than likely, more than one Project Manager (PM).
Third and lastly, both teams must be open to change regarding
which projects are worked on and which must be delayed, the delay in the
delivery of a piece of software, or even a change in project resources. What I
have found in PSOs is to expect just about anything. Especially when you have a
short resource bench, you may have to be creative in plugging holes for resources
and schedules.
Sharing responsibility for project deliveries
Yes, even Sales have some responsibility for the delivery of
the project by helping set expectations and being the communication conduit to
the client. The PM has the overall responsibility of project delivery for the
PSO. The PM must communicate to both his or her PSO and the client using the
reports I’ve discussed in earlier blogs. These include the status report, the
issues and risks report, and any change management reports. However, the PM
must communicate the issues to the PMO and the salesperson as soon as a
critical issue becomes evident. Sales
must be informed because the first complaint telephone call from the client
will most likely be made to Sales, then to PMO management. How to confront this
critical issue is a discussion between the PM, the PMO, and Sales. Depending on
the critical issue, development may also need to be involved. How to deliver
the next steps to the client must be agreed upon by all parties.
If you would like to comment about this blog, please do so by responding in an email at Benny A. Recine, or if you would like to publicly comment in this blog. I will respond as soon as I can and you may inspire a blog article. I look forward to your comments.
If you would like to comment about this blog, please do so by responding in an email at Benny A. Recine, or if you would like to publicly comment in this blog. I will respond as soon as I can and you may inspire a blog article. I look forward to your comments.
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