The Hard-Nosed Project Manager

Agile Contracts

Last week (I am not fast; am I…) there was a PMI Agile CoP webinar on Agile Contracts.  It was pretty good in the sense that it was not so over the top in trying to convince us that Agile is the best thing since sliced bread.

That being said some of the old sayings about Agile were repeated.  Agile does not make things better; people do.  Likewise Agile has less impact than companies’ culture and people’s professionalism in the will to do good work.  Delivering all at the end is a bad practice in all methodologies and not a virtue of Agile.

Anyway, a few negative points:

• PMI does not recognize two (2) types of contracts.  Last time I checked the PMBOK 4^th Edition recognized at least three (3) types and their sub-types: fixed price (firm fixed price, fixed price incentive fee, fixed price with economic price adjustment), cost reimbursable (cost plus fixed fee, cost plus incentive fee, cost plus award fee), and time and materials.  I would add the time and material not to exceed to the list of fixed price contract.
• My clients do no write blank check; if your do tell me who they are and I’ll go work for them.  I have never seen a client that puts a number of piles of money on the table and we decide on scope later.  Nor do you get committed to a project by getting the first quarter of it out there.
• You can flip diagrams (iron triangle) top to bottom; it just does not change their meaning…

For some reason all this does not sound new but rather the (not broken) same old, same old but renamed and using different words.

What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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Who should pay for project management?

It all depends on the type of contract (fixed cost, time and materials, time and materials not to exceed) and who shoulders the risk associated with the project.

If it is a fixed cost project you need your own project manager to protect the interests of your company.  If your client elects not to appoint a project manager it is up to them but in that case you should increase the project management part of your estimate because you’ll end up doing their job for them.

If it is a time and materials project you are basically selling live bodies to your client.  Since that is not a true project you do not need a project manager except if PMs are the ones issuing invoices in your company.

If it is a time and materials not to exceed project you should beat you head against the wall until you get it into your head that you have just entered into an open ended contract where your company assumes all the risk.  If you ever needed a PM now is the time.  Appoint the meanest, angriest project manager you have, give him a Gatling gun, all the ammo in the world, and fix bayonets.  Life is about to get interesting…

Personally I’ve been advocating for a while that we should always appoint a PM regardless of whether the budget allows for one or not.  Cheapest insurance policy in the world.  If you do not take care of your interest who will?

What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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