"I don’t want to pay for Project Management"

I was working with a customer a couple weeks ago and while we were going over an estimate together, the customer inquired about a Project Management line item.  During the inquiry, this person wanted to know what they were getting for the money that would be spent on project management and they asked if they could choose to go without project management.  Quite frankly, this line of inquiry comes up quite often.

I always smile when a person stops at that line item, I’m pretty sure I know where they are going to take the conversation next.

I’ve seen so many people fumble around with this question that I just had to write a post about it. 

I want to start off by saying that I think Project Management is very important to the success of a project.  Additionally, I have been in many conversations where people have suggested “rolling the PM hours into the other tasks”, and I want to publicly say, I think this is horrible idea.  First of all, this is an attempt to avoid answering the question, “What is the value of Project Management, and why should I have to pay for it?”  Secondly, it’s not very honest.  I am a fan of transparency, and I think everything on the project should be clearly laid out and well described.

Here is what works for me.  The first key is understanding the value of Project Management, and for many software engineers/developers this may not be an easy thing to do.  Second, learn how to articulate the value of project management.  Then, during the discussion, I usually say something along these lines:

The role of a Project Manager is to focus on three primary aspects of the project:

• Budget
• Schedule
• Solution (Functionality, Quality, Outcome, etc.)

Their responsibilities include the following:

• Daily communication with the development team
• Status updates and communication with you
• Budgetary management and invoice reconciliation
• Identification and mitigation of project related risk
• Ensuring that the solution meets your described needs and is of acceptable quality
• Understanding what the team needs and removing roadblocks so that they can stay focused and productive
• Reviewing progress with you and advocating your needs to the development team
• and more

If you would like to forgo the costs associated with Project Management, I would be willing to discuss this you, however I need you to understand that we would no longer be responsible for the management of this project and therefore would not be managing its Budget, Schedule, and Overall Solution.  The success of the project requires these responsibilities, and I am uncomfortable moving forward without it.  If you or someone on your staff wants to assume all of these responsibilities…. we can talk about it, but I highly recommend using our project managers for this role.

 

I have never had the “Project Management Inquiry” conversation gone beyond something similar to the above.  The customer sees the value, and isn’t willing take the risk.  Secondly, they have a better understanding of what the project manager can do for them, and this often encourages them to build stronger relationships with the project manager.