Clients and projectmanagers, managing true expectations.

Imagine ... you get a nice project with many disciplines and complex issues and a challenging group of participants. You get a lot of freedom, and a challenging group of participants. You get true freedom, responsibility and confidence, but also thight frames, you can make quick decisions with a pragmatic approach. Although not all formal on paper, and the trust seems to be ok, to you no problem. Right? ..... Sorry ...

Every projectmanager sometimes runs up against the fact that the expectations of the client appears to be quite different than previously estimated, or at least different than put on paper. But there is hope, below some advice you might apply in your own work: making appointments, building trust, and be able to identify yourself with the client.

When reading this article, you get a picture of the world of the client. You get a view of his interests, both business and personal insight into his interests, his qualities and insight into the processes around him. Also an insight view about the processes around him as the Business Cases and policies. Importantly, the alignment of mutual expectations. What you do is one thing, what he expects might be something different. Aligning expectations is the work of the project manager.

A separate article about the relationship between project managers and their clients, maybe a bit exaggerated? Perhaps… at first glance though. Most projects run smooth, deliver the desired results. The result that the client had in mind and good enough to finish the project with a satisfied feeling. The prescribed method was followed, the project has not gone much beyond its budget and overruns in budget have remained within the tolerances of the impact analysis. So whats left to discuss?

Research by McKinsey shows that clients still are not (always) truly satisfied with their project, they expect more confident leadership, more craftsmanship and (especially) environment sensibility. Client and projectmanager are connected to each other, they need each other, but don’t always act accordingly.
In this article the focus on the relationship between clients and projectmanagers. Why does this relationship always get (too) little attention? and how important is the role of the client?

For too long there has been too little attention to the professional role of the client in a project. Far too little literature on the shelves on what is expected of the role of the client. Clients don’t really know what there role is.
The groups aroud projectmanagers is large and interesting. Some of the parties according the principle of Prince2:
- Steeringboard: the supporters of the client (including the client himself)
- Projectgroep: people who work for you as projectmanager
- Users: people who desire the project outcome "something"
- Customers: those who accept the result,
- Financiers: those who pay the project, often a director, those who pay the project
- Line managers: the hierarchical bosses who also want something of the workings of the project.
- Fellow projectmanagers: that initially are in the same boat as the projectmanager, but also fish in the same pond of limited time and resources.
- And finally the client: the person who makes decisions about the project and that the projectmanager is given responsibility by delegation about the project.
But none of the parties described above has so much influence on the mood, the commitment and motivation of the projectmanager, ......... than the role of the client!

Any experienced projectmanager knows a project can be hell if the client does not take decisions, is not interested, takes unexpected changes in the order or even withdraw behind his back the project. The client often has his reasons, or sees things it differently.

It has already been discussed: I see that the position of the client is drastically changing (especially now with being Scrum / Agility thought in attendance) and though the relationship between client and projectmanager is changing too. Elements on this relationship are:
- Intensive and business-like contact,
- Clear communication,
- Expressing expectations,
- Send a contribution to the organization instead of just delivering results on time,
- Interaction at various levels and so on.

A guide dealing with your client is inseparable from the toolbox of the professional projectmanager, but also the client should know what his role is and what can be expected of him.

The client determines the project's success. The project management literature is full of it: there are more projects failed than succeeded, many projects are not completed, go outside scope and budget planning or are never finally implemented (eg Van Aken, 2002 and Tumuschei, 1998). Not because the projectmanager is technically not doing its job, which is almost never the cause, but because the client still is not satisfied and wants more and more. So when may a project be called successful?

A good definition of project success has three angles in itself: that of the project, the user, and the client. Those three detemine to a great extent how successful a project is.

Only here I'm talking only about the explicit expectations. Not the implied expectations. Under implicit expectations of the clients shears many project disappointments. It is sometimes a "mission impossible" for the projectmanager to get truly satisfaction with his client. This is because there were hidden expectations at the client he was not aware of.

The client determines the success of a project. If we assume that the client has seen all the approved amendments, then a project formally always must be a success. Sometimes political interests for a project are also interests who are to be met. Those political interests for a project are often seen as less relevant for a projectmangaer in determining projectsuccess. For him it is more important how the project proceeds on its content and how he deals with the expertises neccesary.

Client and projectmanager often look in different ways to projects and dimensions of success. Projectmanagers often look from the basis of the Business Case. But a client often has a vision of where he works, a strategy and a goal that guides him. Not a Business Case. The projectmanager must ask the client to make the Business Case as a tool by which the client must test his vision.

What is a Business Case? The official translation list of PRINCE2 (the official translation list of PRINCE2 (included in the PRINCE2 zakboekje5, published by PRINCE Benelux) provides no solution: Business Case is simply translated as “Business Case”.

Further research on the Internet provides a nice set of descriptions:
- The true reason for a project, the business justification of a project.
- A supporting tool for planning and decision-making
- A formal document from the client an integrated approach to strategy, actors, goals / objectives for the project.
- An ROI analysis (Return on Investment) is a qualitative and quantitative basis for an investment decision.
- The driving force behind a project and a summary of the benefits of the project for the organization.

There are Business Cases of half a page, but also documents for which a huge folder is not sufficient. This has to do with the complexity of a project and the aspects which the organization. A good client keeps his eyes aimed at the Business Case. Whether the client decides, corrects or gives an approval; everything must be done in light of the Business Case. Throughout the project, the client evaluates the Business Case regularly and adjust it if its necessary. If the Business Case changes, this can have an effect on the totall project-outcome or the overall requirements of the project. So the Business Case is not just privat for the client, but also for the whole project of great importance. The core of the project must be the monitoring of the Business Case.

Although you as a projectmanager "only" have an advisory role on the Business Case, many clients feel that the projectmanager must also be responsible for the whole businesscase-management. A big misunderstanding, which must be directly expressed at the start of the meeting where project expectations will be adressed. Always keep in mind that the Business Case may be very brief or below the expectations that it should be. In the event of a moderate Business Case -description you can offer expertise as a projectmanager to improve it.

The responsibilities of a client can be summarized in the following points:
1. First, the client is the contact point for the project manager in the broadest sense of the word.
2. Approving and updating the project assignment.
3. The preparation and monitoring the Business Case and therefore the positioning of the project in its environment.
4. Facilitating the project people, materials and resources.
5. Taking 'gods, no-go'beslissingen.
6. The transfer to the existing organization.

Why commissioning of the Business Case is often delegated to others than the client itself? Directors quite often do not have time to be true client of a large project. This can have various causes. The most obvious is lack of time.

The role of the client requires a lot of this person. It requires him to give things out of the hands of which he only sees the result at the end of the project (in prince2) and agile at the end of the sprint. He should be able to guarantee results without interfering with the methodical side (because the 'how' is mostly the job of the projectmanager). It takes a lot of a client to establish his professional fate entirely in the hands of someone else (the projectmanager). In addition to expertise, commitment and accountability for the client above all confidence in his projectmanager is decisive: Do I trust this projectmanager to this project? Looking at professionalism, experience and expertise. Gradually the project he watches more and more, grows confidence on skills of the projectmanager such as keeping appointments, taking responsible risks, pulling at the right time to call and to consult with him. Empathy of the project is the most important competency. Because what good is a projectmanager who does not understand his client?

True listening is the key ingredient to empathize with the client. The secret to empathize is to understand before you want to be understood.
It is therefore to ask the right questions, listening, and listen with empathy from the side of the project to the client. What questions can you ask, how will you react? You have to listen carefully and be genuinely interested. Clients often think at the beginning of the project: "I have a problem and the projectmanager solves that for me." Thus, its a tango for two.

As a client delegate tasks to the projectmanager it does not mean that everything goes thereby always smoothly. Just as in a normal line-organization small and big mistakes will happen. Shit happens. People have different views of the same situation and find their way to you - the client - to vent their dissatisfaction, in this case on the project. This should be discussed with the projectmanager how to solve these problems, as a close working team between client and projectmanager. It requires true care and mutual trust on both sides. The projectmanager needs the client, and the client needs the projectmanager. As a team, with the implicit and explicit expectations of the project at hand well taken care off.