PM: Managing External Resources – Part 1

Anyone who has managed a project involving more than a handful of people realizes that Project Management is an awful lot like herding cats. Each person involved has a unique set of needs and communication styles, is often from a different department than ours, with varying workloads, performance criteria, and approaches to doing their work. And, they are pulled in many different directions, none of which we control…

As diligent as we are about getting everyone in alignment we’ll often observe one or more of our team members has gone astray…

MANY of the prior articles cover how to navigate this reality, while working with our fellow employees. Let us not forget that if we are managing a project involving external resources (e.g., a software / solution provider, 3rd-party logistics provider, key supplier, etc.) we MUST manage them just as closely as if they were employees in our own firm…

How often have we left an important aspect of a well-publicized solution upgrade to a 3rd-party to perform over the weekend, only to realize that upon arriving to work on Monday the system remained fully or partially down and unusable causing hours of excruciatingly, painful business impact? I’ve done so myself, long, long ago…

Or, another scenario where the solution provider performs a planned task that was intended to be completely transparent to the user community, yet it didn’t go as expected causing disruption to the business, who never saw it coming.

Both of the above represent total surprises to “our” (the PM’s) customer. Know that scenarios such as these are a direct reflection on us (the PM) as we are responsible for effectively coordinating ALL activities associated with a project, regardless of whether the work is being performed by our fellow employees or contracted 3rd-party resources.

To avoid outcomes such as what is outlined above, there are a number of considerations and strategies we’ll cover. Prior to doing so, let’s discuss the 3rd-party’s first priority…

The 3rd-Party’s First Priority

Make no mistake, our 3rd-party, external resources really want to do a good / great job. That said, their absolute first priority is…to protect their own interests. In no way is this focus meant to be malicious nor this statement derogatory…Realize, the employees of the 3rd-party report first and foremost to their own upper management. They have policies, procedures and protocols to follow, which are clearly articulated in the contract they established with us: all designed to protect them while at the same time having the purest of “intentions” for the outcome to be a positive experience for their customer (us)…

And, often (such as in the 2 unfortunate scenarios referenced above) the 3rd-party is in no way culpable for the undesired outcomes experienced. The main reasons:

• They are often NOT aware of the true scope of impact their work will have on the business, nor do they know “who” specifically is or could be impacted. As a result, they are not in a position to fully quantify and/or communicate business impact…
• They’ll often perform the work “precisely” as specified and agreed upon. However, they may not be aware of the related work we are doing in advance, during or after their work is complete.
• They are often unable to assess the impact they’ve had on our company once their work has been completed. Sure, from their perspective the system or solution seems to be up and operational, but is it 100% functional for ALL stakeholders and defined use cases?

It is here that we need to put on our big boy pants and realize that ALL of the above are our (the PM’s) responsibility. Said another way, the PM must coordinate ALL 3rd-party activities in a holistic way to orchestrate a seamless experience from the end-users’ (our customers’) perspective. We fully OWN this and cannot leave to chance ANY activity that is performed on our project.

Now that we’ve established CRYSTAL clear responsibility on this, the next article will begin discussing the strategies and techniques we can use to fully incorporate external resources into our project team.

In closing, if you are looking to improve PM performance and capabilities in yourself or organization, feel free to reach out so that we may discuss how I can help.

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