Project management redirection

If you are serious about wanting to improve your project management performance, here are some things to focus on.

I think a lot of AEC firms could really improve their overall business by doing some rethinking of how they handle project management, and I’m not talking about implementation of new manpower allocation or scheduling tools. All of those things may be fine and necessary, but there are other ways to make project management better that don’t involve any of these things. 

The problem is deeper than that. It’s all about the culture of the firm and communication and trust between all parties involved. Trying to make project management more effective without paying attention to these things is like putting a supercharger on an engine that is running on four of its eight cylinders. It may run a little better, but nowhere near its real potential that could be realized if the basic engine was operating like it should be. 

If you are serious about wanting to actually improve your project management performance – and your whole business as a result – here are some things you might want to think about working on:

1. Understanding the client’s “business.” I have never understood those who think they can do any project regardless of the client type. They are all different. They have different missions and different constituents to keep happy. Knowing the client’s business (or what they do if it’s a government organization) is super critical to being able to do the right thing for THEM. 
2. Trust building. Every good business relationship has to have a foundation in trust. If the client doesn’t trust your PM’s ability to make them happy, nothing is going to work smoothly. Trust is built on knowing each other. So the client and the PM need to spend as much time as possible with each other early in the process to make sure everyone knows each other well and trusts the other guy is a decent person trying to do the right thing. 
3. Establishing priorities and expectations. I don’t know how anyone can be a project manager without figuring out what the client’s priorities and expectations are for the project, getting those agreed to by the client, and then sharing those with every member of the project team. It’s essential. This was driven home to me 30-something years ago when a PM who worked for me gave the client more research than they asked for and paid for, but didn’t deliver the results on time, when the client told us on the front end that timeliness of completion was the single most important thing to him. 
4. Organization structure. I have written about this before. But when PMs don’t have anyone directly reporting to them and instead have to build their project team with people who actually work for other people, is it any wonder they cannot deliver a project on time and within budget?  Matrix organization structures simply don’t work for the world most AEC firms operate in, yet some companies insist on keeping them because they don’t understand how standing teams can work. 
5. Weekly progress reports. If there is one thing that will help minimize misunderstandings and help lead to client satisfaction it is making it part of your process to send the client and all project team members a simple weekly report that includes what you got done this week, what you will get done in the coming week, and any special issues or concerns such as waiting on someone in the client organization or regulatory agency for information. It helps so much to do this. 
7. Responsiveness and accessibility. Are your PMs ultra-responsive any time, day or night? Project management is not the place to demonstrate your “work-life balance.” Much better to show “work-life integration” and respond to calls, texts, and emails faster than anyone else they have ever worked with. And be sure to put cell phone numbers on all email signatures. 
8. Owning up to problems. Effective project management means admitting when you make a mistake and then working immediately to address it. When you have a relationship of trust there is little you cannot overcome by first accepting responsibility and then taking quick action.
9. No stupid internal rules. One example of a stupid internal rule that I have seen in many AEC firms is something to the effect of, “We don’t do projects that are less than $X in fee.” I say that because you don’t want a PM to say “no” to a good client who wants a small job done and who pays you a hundred times more than that every year on other projects. Not to mention doing small jobs is a great marketing tool to win new clients away from their current providers. 

I truly believe any company that pays heed to these eight points above will significantly improve their project management performance. What do you think?

Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.