In Part 1 of this rather unfortunate discussion concerning project contractors or consultants that bail on our engagements, I discussed my own unfortunate recent situation and began to look at ways we try to combat, mitigate, or avoid such situations. Certainly open and frequent communication can help pave the way to less eventful project manager-team situations, but that won’t guarantee that you avoid all scenarios. You may still eventually find yourself in one of those situations where your contractor or consultant turns out to be someone you didn’t realize they were…no matter how well you think you knew them.

What we’ve discussed so far are two key steps in resolving an unfortunate scenario where your project contractor leaves you in the lurch…sometimes taking the money and running, as was the case for me. #1 – you try to work with them, bring them back into the fold, reason with them, understand their situation, etc. Why? Because usually it is in your best interest to do so and almost always it is in their best interest to just get back on the job and eliminate the risk of facing monetary action, legal action, and governing/sanctioning action and fines. #2 – you can go to a trusted 3rd party who may be able to intervene and clear the situation up – talk sense into one or both parties and help them to move forward together and get back to work on the project.

It can be as simple as a little blip on the project radar or it can be as large as complete project shutdown and ultimate cancellation and failure. What I am talking about is the act of bringing on a contractor for your technical project, construction project, or other type of project work only to have the contractor bail on the work – sometimes at the worst possible time – leaving you to figure out how best to get the work done, keep the customer satisfied, and keep the project going. Sometimes it’s possible, sometimes it isn’t, and sometimes you may have to take legal action.

I had this come up personally on a construction project recently. Thankfully there is a contractors board to start with who will give a costly citation to the culprit…a second complaint can put the offending party in jail. Outside of that it is going to be up to me to take legal action. In terms of technical projects, however, your options are probably dictated by whatever contract you legally entered into, though everyone and anyone can certainly try to sue. The best thing to do is to document dates, dollars, and conversations. Having that information organized and at the ready is always your best possible situation to be in and can serve you well if legal action is the final recourse.

As much as we would like to think that we are free and clear to run our project and determine its outcome….the reality is that is not true. Every project – really no matter what the type of project, what industry the project is in, and what level or type of technology is utilized in the solution – has three major constraints. These are always going to be budget, time, and quality. There really is no way to avoid these.

I have never seen any project manager blessed with an unlimited budget. Likewise, I have never heard of or witnessed a project customer say, “Take as long as you want with this project.” It just doesn’t happen. And quality…well…I think we all understand that one. The end solution needs to work…needs to solve a problem or need. Otherwise, it isn’t really a successfully completed project…it’s just work that was done and time that was wasted.

In Part 1 of this two part series on what to tell those inquisitive people that are curious about what it actually means to be a project manager, we began looking at the first three of six major functional areas that PMs deal with day in and day out. It isn’t always exciting, it isn’t always awe-inspiring, but it is usually fairly interesting. At least to me – and far more interesting…in my opinion…than most people imagine it to be.

And it is almost always different. No two projects are the same, issues and risks and decisions are always present and different, and teams and clients create an interesting – and challenging chemistry – that we must creatively manage and keep in check. And always…we must keep the project moving forward while keeping one eye on the end solution and one eye on the overall scope of the project to make sure we aren’t stepping out of bounds for what we have been tasked to accomplish.

I would like to think that as the project is winding down I know whether my customer is satisfied with the implementation or whether they feel there have been some issues and concerns. I will also be the first to admit that I have been surprised both ways…so it is never a certainty.

Staying on top of the project via status reporting and the project schedule is critical to keeping the project on track and keeping customer satisfaction high. However, there are always other factors that come into play – some you can control and some you never can. Some that you do have a lot of control over as a factor in stakeholder satisfaction include the softer skills of communication, customer service, and problem resolution. And really, as the project winds down you can hope you know how your customer feels about the project – or you can do the wise thing and go ahead and ask the tough questions. It’s best if you can gauge this throughout the engagement – but that isn’t always possible. However, it is definitely a very good idea – almost necessary, in my opinion – to regroup afterwards and discuss this topic with the customer and various stakeholders post engagement.