After 17 years of Project Management and more than my fair share of challenging projects, I have come to one big conclusion; Managing Stakeholder Expectations is by far the Biggest Challenge Facing Project Managers!
Every project should resemble an excellent book. You begin with an introduction to lay the groundwork, a middle to set the stage, and a conclusion to tie things up in a gentle bow leaving the reader satisfied that they understood the process. One part I suspect that the Author has trouble with is the reader’s background and general understanding of the topic he or she is preparing to undertake.
How is this solved? Educating the reader and being illustrative in writing to manage the reader’s expectations to a conclusion the author wants them to achieve.
The book is very similar to project management and the stakeholders he or she has the privilege to manage. Looking back in my career, specifically at the less than perfect projects, I used always to blame poor communication as the primary driver for the “perceived failure” in the project.
Now I am rethinking that notion. I think better managing stakeholder’s expectations is the cause of a lot of these “perceived failures.” Sure, if you are a bad communicator, you are going to have trouble meeting the desired outcome of the project. However, if you do not realize where your stakeholder’s expectations are at the outset of the project, how can you possibly meet them? At the end of the day, clients are paying us to have their expectations met.
Our job is to understand these expectations, quantify them, describe them and implement them. Quite often, our client’s expectations do not match reality, and it is our job to modify these expectations to meet the constraints of the project’s scope, budget, and schedule.
The best way to adjust expectations is through education. Not all stakeholders come to the table with the same background experience or even the same desired outcome as everyone else. If you take the time to learn the history and desired outcome of all the decision makers on the project, then the Project Manager can adjust the plan accordingly.
The best way I have found how to do this without insulting everyone’s perceived knowledge of the subject is to start the first meeting with a “real story opener” on you as a Project Manager. By doing this, you tend to humanize project challenges and set the stage for empowering the participants to not make the same ones. The opener also enables you to take an inventory of participant backgrounds and their desired outcomes. The story will allow you to gauge potential success and future weak areas that might cause issues down the road.
In the end, we all want our projects to be best sellers and not in some bargain bin at a dollar store. If you need help with your project, Pickering Associates would appreciate the opportunity to understand your expectations on your next project.
Ryan Taylor, President