Project Management Archives

The best color to describe project management is gray. Projects are rarely stark black-and-white. As such, an essential quality for any effective project manager is negotiation skills in order to navigate the gray areas inherent in all projects.

In order to achieve the expected project outcomes, project managers must realize that things are not always going to go according to plan. Because of this uncertainty, the PM is often faced with novel problems without clear-cut solutions. An unclear chain of authority can complicate these situations, as can organizational policies that do not support an easy resolution.

There will inevitably be project reports that show slippages that can’t be ignored, and one of the most important aspects of a project manager’s job is delivering the bad news to business sponsors. There are little ways to make for a smoother road — like having a clear communication plan to follow rather than improvising every time — but anyone who’s in project management for long enough eventually has to compromise some of their principles to get things done.

People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight Eisenhower

The most common trade-offs take place between the arms of the Iron Triangle: time, money, and spec. As the name implies, the triangle is immutable. Change one of the corners of the triangle and something else has to give:

If it looks like the project will be late, you need to cut scope or add resources (people or money).
When items are added to the scope, you need to add resources or extend the schedule (people or money).
If the resources will not be available, you’ll need to extend the schedule or cut the scope.

Project managers spend their days wrestling with these realities. There never seems to be enough time or money to finish the project in the timelines and budgets that were initially approved. It is important that the project manager negotiate win-win outcomes for all parties. A successful negotiator will ensure that all parties gain something they perceive as valuable.

If you are in a situation that requires input from stakeholders, always negotiate with your own project team first. Make sure you have considered all angles before escalating to stakeholders. Consult your team’s project management software to develop as many and as detailed options as you can. The more you have, the better your chances of achieving the desired outcome.

Choosing Favorites

Since sacrificing an arm of the Iron Triangle is inevitable, project managers will often have to choose favorites. This may depend on the organizational circumstances or the particulars of the project, but all else being equal the project manager should be an advocate for quality.

In particular, project managers should take a stand for anything that’s critical to meeting a necessary requirement for the project. At the end of the day, a project manager’s job is to deliver successful projects and projects are about realizing benefits. A project can be late and over-budget and still be well-worth it if it achieves it solves the problem or capitalizes on the opportunity it was designed for. On the other hand, a project that doesn’t realize any benefits gets 0% return so any investment that went into it was a waste.

If the project does not produce a quality product, it has failed. And an outright failure can have far-reaching implications, as compared to a merely inefficient one.

The lifecycle methodology and your standard operating procedures (SOP) describe how the project will produce a quality outcome. Since project success is the project manager’s job, how they get that job done is following the process and ensuring each task is completed by following the correct approach at each step.

Negotiating Tips for Project Managers

It’s all well and good to know that negotiating skills are important, but how do you refine those skills? Here are tips for project managers trying to level up this important craft:

1) You have more power than you think.

This is a common phrase in the world of negotiations, and it’s especially applicable for project management. People are naturally so caught up in their own fears and expectations that they often lose sight of the fact that the other side also has something to lose.

In this case, “the other side” should be on your side and what they have to lose is the same thing you do, so there’s a natural current moving you both in the same direction. The business sponsors have a vested interest in the project succeeding. They might not like the news that the project won’t be able to make its original estimates, but you will often be surprised how far they’re willing to go to assure that a project will get completed

2) Understand the Other Person.

While the project manager and business sponsor should be on the same side, each will still have a unique set of circumstances and priorities that will make them more flexible in certain areas. What you want to avoid is solving the other person’s problems for them. If you put everything out on the table, your own priorities as well as the other’s, then you can problem solve on your own.

Oftentimes, this solves the issue on the spot. For example, the business sponsors may express no concern whatsoever for how you solve the problems, just so long as the budget doesn’t increase. If adding a month to the project resolves the issue, then it will be a very pain-free process. The process will be even smoother if that expectation is explicitly outlined in a project or team charter, not just in the sponsors’ hearts.

But even if the solution isn’t as easy as that example, having a solid understanding of each others’ flexibilities and deal breakers can lead to creative solutions. Ideally, you’ve already built rapport with the stakeholder and established that you both are working in each other’s best interest. And once you know what is completely off the table, you can stop wasting your time with pipe dreams and focus on the areas where you might be able to meet in the middle.

Summary

Any project manager worth their rate is a leader first and foremost. This often leads to a negotiation-like scenario where both sides have to navigate what aspects of the triple constraint will have to give in order to resolve project issues.

But since both “sides” should be working together toward a mutually beneficial goal, a clear-minded approach should allow all parties to agree on a solution. One popular negotiation adage not included here is “a good compromise leaves everyone unhappy.” In a project management setting, coming to the understandings above generally allows for a mutually agreeable resolution. And if not, they organize the discussion, so that when both sides bend on all the areas they’re willing to bend and the resolution still doesn’t seem viable, then each side can understand what further compromises they will need to make.

In this sense, coming to a compromise that makes everyone equally dissatisfied is only a last recourse that everyone involved should see as inevitable once they’ve laid all their cards on the table

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