Multi-tasking in Meetings

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Newsletter Graphic Advice The PM is INDear Bonnie,

Some people constantly multitask in meetings, which disrupts other people’s attention and prevents important information from getting to the audience. Do you have any recommendations to get people to pay attention? 

Thanks,

Can We Focus on our Meetings?!

 

Dear Can We Focus,

A well-run meeting, focused on a relevant agenda, is the best approach to curb people’s multitasking.

  1. Know what you’re trying to accomplish. Identify why you need a meeting and the desired results (approval, issue resolution, status).
  2. Create an agenda with a list of topics and time estimate to discuss each one. That way you can be sure to cover every item. You can keep discussions on topic. Plus, if the discussion starts to go off track, you can stop the discussion and create an action item to handle the new item offline (or in another meeting).
  3. Limit meeting attendees to who you need to accomplish the meeting goal. The more people in a meeting, the harder it is to get things done on time. 
  4. Schedule the meeting for when it works for attendees and send the meeting invitation and materials ahead of time. That way, attendees have a chance to prepare. (They might not read beforehand, so be prepared for a quick review.) 
  5. Start meetings on time, even if some attendees are missing. Don’t backtrack when people show up late. That just reinforces their rude behavior. (They can read the meeting notes to catch up on what they missed.) If a key decision-maker is missing, reschedule the meeting rather than sit and wait.
  6. If possible, have someone facilitate the meeting to keep everyone focused.  The facilitator explains the purpose of the meeting, topics, attendees, and ground rules for interaction. The facilitator can coax quiet people to participate or wrangle the discussion back on topic.
  7. Take good meeting notes (or use an AI tool to create them). Be sure to document decisions, action items, and who’s responsible for them. Distribute the notes to attendees and (up) anyone else who needs to know.

Establishing a standard of behavior in meetings promotes better outcomes. You get what you tolerate. Unless different standards are set, meetings won’t get any better.

Here are a couple of strategies for meeting behavior. Have everyone put their phones in a basket, so they won’t be distracted. To make sure everyone is paying attention, assign a task to each person during the meeting. If they can’t recite that to-do at the end of the meeting, assess a fine like buying coffee next time or make them wear a silly hat.

Effective meetings will help keep people from multitasking. You’ll get more done, and you might win some fans. Give yourself a head start. Create a checklist of things to do before you hold a meeting.

For more about effective meetings, check out Dave Crenshaw’s Leading Productive Meetings course.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 95,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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A Learning environment for Continuous Project Improvement

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Learning environment for Continuous Project Improvement graphicHigh-performing project teams embrace continuous improvement. And continuous learning is the core of that mindset. Here are tips for developing a learning environment in a project that enables continuous improvement and long-term performance.

  • Allow for experimentation. New tools and approaches can produce significant changes but deploying them can be a challenge. You can get better performance and improved business results when you allow project team members to experiment without excessive deadline pressure. This is easier said than done. You have to include time for experimentation into your plans and then defend those plans with key stakeholders. Note: To gain approval, discuss the potential for significant improvements and also create alternate plans in case the team’s experimentation doesn’t work out.
  • Focus on “what did we learn?” rather than blame. Setbacks occur in every project. To enable learning, focus on what led to the setback, rather than who was at fault. Identify training and processes that could help avoid setbacks, or look for ways to learn from them. This positive approach embraces what makes learning organizations productive.
  • Make mentoring a high priority. In learning organizations, leaders support project team members by sharing their background and experience. Pair team members and leaders carefully to maximize the value the team member gains from the interaction. Schedule meetings regularly and follow through with those meetings. Don’t treat them as a “when time is available” exercise. 
  • Offer plenty of formal and informal training opportunities and don’t create time constraints. Make sure that training opportunities are available. Build them into project schedules, so taking a course doesn’t put team members under time pressure to deliver their project tasks. Provide training in many forms, including lunch and learns, accredited training courses, and online tutorials, to maximize their availability and applicability. Note: Not all training needs to relate directly to the team member’s current project. Learning organizations take a longer-term approach to expanding team member skills. That way, they can increase their capabilities for current and future projects.
  • Maintain an organized, formally administered project data repository. Learning from past projects is key. Learning is sporadic at best without an efficient way to reference historical project data. Have an administrator collect lessons learned, categorize them, and provide guidance for finding and retrieving information.

Many project managers won’t have the authority to deploy all these approaches. You can adopt some of them.  For example, you can probably create a lessons learned repository, ask leaders to spend time with a promising team member, mentor team members yourself, and hold your own lunch and learn meetings. 

Take stock of your project environment and see where you can fit in more learning. Gauge your authority and perhaps push the envelope a bit with your project sponsor.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 95,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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I Used Project Management to Get Through a Personal Crisis

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PM for a Personal CrisisIn April (2025) I learned that pathology from surgery showed stray carcinoma cancer cells in my body. After the shock wore off, the project manager in me took charge. Now that this ordeal is over, I can’t imagine handling it without project management. Here are some things I did to make it through.

  • What is the goal? I’ve said many times that the project goal is crucial. My goal isn’t to overcome cancer cells. I delegated that to my doctors. The goal has been to get through the treatment as comfortably as possible while also managing the rest of my life.
  • Understand the project. Cancer treatment has a lot of moving pieces. In my first appointment with the chemo oncologist, he handed me a packet with at least 80 pages of information about the treatment, side effects (and how to handle them), things to do, things to not do, what to eat and not eat, and so on. I read the entire packet – twice – and then created my own document to organize and highlight what I needed to know to succeed along with all the questions I had.
  • Confirming the requirements. Part of the pre-treatment was reviewing the information with a nurse. I was able to ask my questions, jot down more notes, and then update my home-made treatment document.
  • What are the risks? This project has been annoying in so many ways, but mainly because I am a planner and cancer treatment has a gazillion unknowns. What side effects will I get? How bad will they be? When will they happen? Will I be able to drive to treatment or will I need help? What should I have on hand? 
  • Risk response strategies: A, B, C. With so many unknowns, you might think there is no way to plan. In fact, my plan was a set of risk response strategies depending on what I might face. First, I bought supplies and food (resources!) recommended for dealing with side effects. Then, I scheduled friends (more resources!) to drive me to treatment the first week. And if I felt so bad that I couldn’t handle the 35-minute drive to treatment, I would get a room near the hospital. This was an iterative project. I stopped there to see how I was at the end of that week.
  • Communication.
    • Confirm details: If someone on the medical team told me something that differed from what the doctor or other provider had told me previously, I spoke up to say that was not what I had been told. If necessary, I would push back and ask them to confirm what was correct before proceeding. (In every case, I was correct to question the discrepancy.)
    • Ask questions: I called the doctor’s office when I had issues and major questions. I wrote up points to make, details about status, and questions, so I wouldn’t forget anything.
    • Don’t back down on important issues: Unfortunately, my two big issues happened on the first and then second weekend. That meant I had to get through the difficulties of getting support outside of normal work hours. I did not take no for an answer until I was able to speak to a doctor.
    • Streamline communication: I knew from experience that I did not have the bandwidth to communicate with my friends individually. I created an email group and a smaller text group to update people on my progress and to ask for help when I needed it. If anyone got impatient and emailed or texted to ask how I was, I would not respond to them directly but would send an update to the group when I was able.
  • Get advice on big decisions. My second big issue was life-threatening. I was in the hospital for almost 4 days. (That could be a whole separate article.) This issue required revisiting my treatment plan – digesting information and making a significant decision to change the second round of chemo. I asked a good friend to attend the meeting. The oncologist ran through all the possibilities with pros and cons of each. He said I couldn’t take another full round of chemo, but there were 5 other options. A lot of information and my head was spinning. My friend asked several questions, which prompted a good discussion and got my brain back in gear. After the meeting, she and I compared notes to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
  • Ask for help. I’m rather independent and take care of myself. Ask anyone who knows me. But I learned a long time ago to ask for help when I need it. Asking doesn’t make you weak: it shows you’re strong. Asking doesn’t mean you’re incapable: it means you’re smart. Asking means you are proactively choosing the best path to success.
  • Celebrate small wins. The course of treatment was grueling, although I know that it was minor compared to what other people go through. At the 4-week mark, I was ready to be done. So, I looked for small wins to celebrate, to motivate me to hang in there: when I disconnected the pump when chemo was done, when the PICC line was removed. I counted down the number of radiation treatments to go. I reminded myself how quickly time passes, especially when it seems to move slowly when things suck. I booked a couple trips and planned fun things to do when I was done.
  • Stay positive. I had plans. I had a good team. I had support. I focused on what was good. Even after my bad bouts, I acknowledged that I bounced back quickly. I had some moments of negativity. When those occurred, I thought about everything that went well. If I was really negative, I would reach out to a good friend to talk it through.
    • Staying positive doesn’t mean pretending everything is fine. It’s more like lessons learned: focus on what went well and do more of that, what could be done better and adjust the plan, what went wrong and figure out how to correct that in the future. For example, I was concerned about a second life-threatening episode on a holiday weekend, so I spoke to the oncologist’s nurse. I learned that one of their locations had regular hours on the weekend and could provide the injections I needed if necessary. Fortunately, I didn’t need to go there because our adjusted treatment plan worked well.

I hope you find this real-world example helpful. If you’ve used project management to get through things in your life, I’d love to hear about it.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 94,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Setting Appropriate Traffic Light Thresholds

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Setting Appropriate Traffic Light Thresholds graphicProject reporting often uses traffic light indicators (green-yellow-red) to present status. The colors usually represent variance of actuals from the baseline plan. This article describes how to associate percentage ranges with traffic light colors for several project conditions.

Quick refresher on traffic light status: Green means all is well. Yellow indicates caution. And red is danger, danger! Green might be less than 2% over schedule. 2% to 5% over schedule is yellow. And greater than 5% over schedule is red. 

Here are ways to set traffic light indicator ranges for different purposes.

  • The priority of the triple constraints. Each project will prioritize the standard constraints of cost, time, and scope. If you must make changes to meet a government legal compliance mandate, time and scope will be critical to avoid legal penalties. In a market where the organization needs to stay ahead of the competition, scope might be a top priority, so the product stays best-in-class. If delivering a project for a client on a fixed-fee basis, cost can become the highest priority. For example, if there’s a penalty for missing a compliance deadline, you would set up a traffic light indicator for schedule variance with a low percentage for red, such as greater than 2%. 
  • The consequences of missing critical constraint targets. The time and scope percentages could be broad (5% to 10%, for example) if the organization only pays a $10 penalty for a missed legal compliance mandate. On the other hand, with a $10 million penalty for a missed government deadline, the time and scope percentages should be narrow (0% to 1%), because you don’t want to miss that deadline. The red light comes on with the smallest slip in schedule, so you have early warning to work on getting the project back on track.
  • The team’s familiarity with the tools and processes they use. When the project team is familiar with the context and tools they will use, narrow traffic light percentages are reasonable, because the risk of delays from unfamiliarity is low. However, you must factor in the learning curve when new tools or processes are being developed. With unfamiliar new tools and processes, broader percentages are appropriate because the team might spend more time experimenting or back-tracking. Because narrow percentage ranges convey confidence in the estimates, you want broad ranges in this situation, so stakeholders recognize the uncertainty within the project. The broad ranges (5% to 10%) indicate that things might change.
  • Industry standards and expectations. Specific industries have generally accepted variances for project constraints. For example, the construction industry utilizes variances to accommodate unpredictable weather patterns (up to 15% in many cases). Manufacturing, which is much more controlled and predictable, often sets percentage ranges no greater than 5%.
  • Stakeholder expectations. Organizational history and strategy elements may dictate stricter compliance to constraints, and thus narrower percentage ranges. Alternatively, plan to hold up-front discussions if percentages are broader than usual to explain the rationale for the variance range.

If you use traffic light indicators on your projects, consider whether you would adjust the variance ranges due to the preceding conditions. And think about other conditions that might affect the ranges you choose.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 94,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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The Estimation Accuracy Plan: Making Estimates Less Controversial

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The Estimation Accuracy PlanEstimating is the bane of a project manager’s existence, because people’s (especially management’s) expectations for estimation accuracy are out of touch with reality. Project managers are expected to produce estimates with little project information and then are challenged when they change their estimates. Bob McGannon and I discussed an approach that makes estimating less controversial with an added benefit of educating management and team members on the realities of estimating.

First, consider a Stage Gate Plan, which triggers a review of a project’s viability when project milestones are reached (for example, completing requirements collection, preliminary planning, and detailed planning). This is a start, but not ideal. Detailed costs that weren’t initially discussed in a waterfall project environment are usually added, drawing scrutiny and challenges. In addition, a Stage Gate Plan isn’t relevant in an Agile project environment. So, what to do?

Voilà: the Estimation Accuracy Plan.

When starting a project, a lack of hard data makes project estimation nothing more than a somewhat refined, educated guess. An Estimation Accuracy Plan is a concise plan that spells out how the estimation process really works. It highlights milestone events when estimation accuracy will increase. For example, in a waterfall project, milestones might include finalized staffing, completed detailed planning, completed competitive bid process, or completed soil analysis before a building foundation is constructed.

The Estimation Accuracy Plan can be applied in an agile environment by building it around features and the priority list. When additional equipment, staffing, or other costs are needed to complete a feature, those costs will be determined, and the overall project estimate can be updated. That way, management can consider the costs and reprioritize features if project expenses become a problem.

This type of plan provides many benefits:

  • Shows how much guesswork is part of an initial project estimate and how much project personnel don’t know when submitting an initial estimate.
  • Clearly identifies incomplete events that allow for refining estimates.
  • Indicates how estimation accuracy progresses over the life of a project. It reminds (or educates) management that estimation isn’t scientific. This plan identifies what will be learned or discovered as the project progresses, and how and when estimation accuracy will increase.
  • Demonstrates the financial risk of launching and continuing the project. The estimated cost needed to reach the next estimation milestone is usually well known, so the business can assess the risk of continuing the project beyond the next cost milestone. For example, if three people will work one month to create a detailed plan, the cost to reach that milestone is known. Once the plan is completed, you will have information that helps refine the overall estimate. If a competitive bid process is required for that detailed plan, the cost of conducting the bid is known. The bids submitted from the competitive bid process are still guesswork. The overall project estimate can be refined once the bid process is complete and the costs from the final contract are determined.
  • Shows the impact of resourcing and procurement. This plan shows management the variability of major elements in the project’s lifecycle before any significant project spending occurs. It demonstrates the impact of decisions on resourcing, contracting, procurement, and other elements that significantly impact project costs.

Note: When an agile team’s size and sprint times are fixed, the spend rate and costs are easy to calculate. (The cost of team personnel per day multiplied by days worked.) However, when other costs such as vendors, equipment, certifications, or other items affect an agile project, an Estimation Accuracy Plan helps address the same problems that arise in waterfall estimating.

Sample Estimation Accuracy Plan for a Waterfall Project:

  • Initial estimate – 4 October 2026
  • Vendor personnel rates finalized – 15 October 2026
  • Preliminary plan completed – 29 October 2026
  • Detailed plan completed – 19 November 2026
  • Competitive bid process completed – 9 December 2026

Sample Estimation Accuracy Plan for an Agile Project:

  • Initial envision and speculate stages complete – Staffing determined – 21 January 2026
  • Prioritized feature list completed – 28 January 2026
  • Hardware integration feature sprint (4th sprint) – 25 March 2026
  • Server configuration feature sprint (6th sprint) – 22 April 2026

Note: A re-prioritization of features occurs at the end of each sprint, so the sprint numbers, dates, and therefore the overall project estimate refinement schedule will change if those feature dates change.

We would love to hear your thoughts about using an estimation accuracy plan. Add your thoughts in the comments section.

For more about estimating, check out my Project Management Foundations: Schedules course.

 

Coming Up

#2 popular course smallMy course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 92,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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How to Create a Project Decision-Making Process

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Project Decision-makingMaking decisions is an integral part of project management, yet most projects are managed without a predetermined, agreed-upon approach to decision-making. Here are some tips for creating an effective decision-making process.

  • Mirror organizational norms. Decisions are made in your organization (let’s hope so.) So, your organization’s decision-making approach should be at the core of a project’s process. For example, if people in the leadership hierarchy make decisions, then the project sponsor should make decisions about the project. And if the decision-making norm is consensus, then make decisions via consensus for a project. If decisions come after a detailed analysis and discussion, do the same for the project. That way, decision-making in projects will be comfortable and familiar to everyone involved. 
  • Consider the background of the sponsor and PM. The technical and business expertise of the sponsor and project manager determines how involved each is in decision-making. Who takes the lead on proposing solution alternatives and conducting analysis (beyond project management) will depend on their backgrounds. That way, the project uses those backgrounds to maximize decision-making efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Include appropriate stakeholders. Include the most involved and knowledgeable stakeholders in the decision-making process. Also consider including stakeholders with significant influence or political sway who will help gain support through their involvement. Note: Select knowledgeable and influential stakeholders, regardless of whether they are part of the organizational chart. Frequently, the best organizational change agents are not part of the management team but are influential leaders who should be included in project design and decision-making.
  • Ensure coverage across critical disciplines. Involve people covering the major disciplines required to deliver a project successfully. Overall, the people making decisions should have financial knowledge and authority, control over project resources, and understanding of the business and process changes the project will deliver. In addition, people with technical, legal/regulatory expertise, or contracts and vendor management should be involved as appropriate, based on the project’s scope and staffing.

Combine these choices with current and accurate project data and you’ll have a solid basis for making solid decisions.

Take a look at project documentation in your organization. Find anything that describes how to make decisions? If not, ask other project managers or someone on the leadership team about the organization’s process. Then practice by applying these tips to create a decision-making process for your current or a past project.

For more about making decisions, check out Mike Figliuolo’s Decision-Making Strategies course.

 

Coming Up

#2 popular course smallMy course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 91,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Project Requirements Are No Place for Solutions

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Newsletter Picture (1920 x 1080 px)Requirements are supposed to represent business needs, but sometimes, they reflect a solution stakeholders believe will help them. For a project to create value, you need to make sure requirements convey business needs not solutions. To scrub proposed solutions from your project requirements, make sure that:

  • Requirements are written as “what statements,” not “how statements?” A requirement statement shouldn’t have any process constraints. The requirement should describe the desired outcome or condition, leaving the playing field open for different solution approaches. For example, “Shortening the manufacturing time by 15%” or “Reduce costs by reducing the parts inventory required to maintain the manufacturing line”. How to reduce the required parts inventory (for example, with computer modelling or by changing to longer-lasting parts) isn’t mentioned.
  • Any constraints included in the requirement statement are in business terms. For example, increase profit by 15% without increasing expenses by more than 10%. 
  • There is a clear link between the requirement and a business need, problem, opportunity, or constraint. Also, all the stakeholders understand the reason for the requirement. Typical business needs are stated as profit, cost reduction, time, regulatory compliance, market share, and so on.
  • The requirement describes a measurable outcome. Keep in mind, done/not done doesn’t count as measurable. For example, a target for reducing parts inventory could be 20%, 30%, or to where costs are reduced by $300,000. Actual results can be described as below, at, or above those targets. In comparison, installing and configuring a computer system (a solution, using technology) to optimize inventory levels is either done or not done. It does not directly reflect a business outcome. 
  • The requirement allows for creativity or agile learning. Requirements that don’t constrain approaches to solving a problem are the best examples of leaning into the “what” approach. For example, “Reduce the cost of maintaining an aircraft at the boarding gate” constrains creativity. The improvement must apply only when the aircraft is at the gate, rather than maintenance performed in a hangar. Note: There could be business instances when a specific condition like that is a true requirement. But try to avoid them unless necessary. The flexibility to be creative is important, especially in an agile world, where solutions can evolve during a project.

Homework! Go through the requirements for one of your projects, present or past, and see whether any “how to” requirements snuck in. If so, practice turning those into “what” requirements.

For more about defining requirements, check out Daniel Stanton’s Project Management Foundations: Requirements course.

 

Coming Up

#2 popular course smallMy course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 91,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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PM Superpowers

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Newsletter Graphic Advice The PM is INHi Bonnie,

Someone asked me what super-power I would pick so I could be the best project manager on the planet.  That’s what I want to be, so I don’t want to get this wrong. What one PM superpower would you choose?

Thanks,

Project-Superman

Dear Project-Superman,

First, I would obviously cheat and give myself three superpowers. If project sponsors can demand a “quick win” that ends world hunger, restores the environment, and delivers the next killer app, why should I pick just one magic trick?

First up: The Vulcanizer
No, not someone who burns everything down in a spectacular inferno (tempting, though that is). I mean the Mr. Spock type of Vulcan. I would transform all wildly unrealistic stakeholders into rational beings. The person who just asked me to “triple the project scope without changing the timeline” would blink, raise an eyebrow, and say, “Wait, that would be illogical.”
Otherwise, I’ll have to persistently drag people back to what realistic deliverables are with persuasion, charm, and irrefutable data.

Second choice: The Time Alterer
You’ve heard of Doctor Who? Meet Doctor Undo. Because time is apparently an optional concept for everyone but project managers, I could rewind time whenever a vendor swears they’re 95% done but somehow needs six more weeks. This power would also help me uninvite people who take an hour in a meeting describing their plan for avoiding the 10-minute delay on our 28-month project.
Since I’m unlikely to get a magic TARDIS, I’ll settle for collecting lessons learned, selecting vendors based on their reliability, and adding buffers to dole out when someone needs a bit more time.

Third: The Truth Extractor.
You remember that movie Liar, Liar, where Jim Carrey couldn’t tell a lie even if it meant social death? I want to be able to force that behavior on every stakeholder who doesn’t tell the whole story, always says yes in meetings and then quietly undermines what they agreed to behind the scenes. Imagine watching them blurt out, “I’m planning to sabotage this because Janet didn’t invite me to the strategy dinner!”
Until I get truth serum, I’ll just keep building good relationships and communication within my team and verifying everything with other people.

In short: why pick one superpower when you can order the entire Project Avengers lineup? 

Cheers,
Bonnie
(My real superpower is surviving all the project madness without losing my last functioning brain cell.)

 

Coming Up

#2 popular course smallMy course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 90,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Costs and Risks to Consider with Vendors

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Hidden costs of vendors graphicUsing contractors and other vendors can be a great option if you need more people or people with specific skills. However, cost goes beyond the hourly rate you pay. And vendors introduce risks to your project. Here are things to consider before bringing on vendor personnel.

  • Examining alternatives, negotiation, contracting, and performance monitoring. Hiring a contractor or vendor takes time. You have to find a person with the right combination of technical and business skills and a personality that fits into the culture of your organization. Then, there’s negotiating the contract and monitoring the vendor’s performance against that contract. Note: Pre-negotiated contracts with vendors make it easier, but you still have to review candidates to find the right person.
  • Stakeholders relying too much on vendors. With vendors who have technical and industry experience, business stakeholders might presume that the vendor understands the project requirements in detail. The vendor might use the correct local business vernacular and anticipate the organization’s needs, which lulls stakeholders into feeling they don’t have to participate in the project. They step back and rely on the vendor to represent them. But in most cases, the stakeholders’ requirements and needs of the stakeholder can differ greatly from the vendor’s perception. Be sure to take time and care to verify the stakeholder needs directly, which means conducting in-depth interviews with stakeholders.
  • Preventing IP from leaving the building. Vendors are often exposed to and help craft new processes or configure technical tools for the organization. But think about the cost if that intellectual capital walks out the door and is permanently lost. To avoid this, assign in-house personnel to mirror their vendor colleagues. That way, they understand the processes and technical changes a vendor creates for the business and keeps the IP in the house.
  • Mitigating risks. Vendor personnel might see confidential information and misuse it or report it to other entities. In addition, vendor personnel can leave at any time to take work for a different client or to change jobs. Of course, in-house personnel can change jobs, too. But you have no control or detailed knowledge of the vendor’s team members and their personnel plans. To avoid these issues, prepare backup staff alternatives and be ready to implement them on a moment’s notice. The costs of mitigating these risks, such as keeping other contract personnel on standby, can be significant. 

Many project managers simply calculate the delta for vendor pay rates against in-house personnel costs. That often underestimates the financial and risk impacts on their organization. Be sure to evaluate all these possibilities in hiring a contractor to produce more accurate project costs and risks.

Have a vendor challenge or success tip for the rest of us? Share in the comments section.

For more about vendor management, check out Oliver Yarbrough’s Project Management Foundations: Procurement course.

 

Coming Up

#2 popular course smallMy course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

 

_______________________________________

This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 90,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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My stakeholders aren’t arguing! Is something wrong?

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my stakeholders aren’t arguingProjects constraints often result in stakeholders competing for their share of the project pie. If there is no formal requirements prioritization and stakeholders aren’t squabbling, there’s a problem. Your stakeholders are either disenchanted with the project or don’t know its status. Here are actions to ensure stakeholders are engaged and the ideal project requirements are in scope.

  • Hold a well-structured requirements prioritization workshop. Invite all stakeholders who submitted requirements and make sure that the ones with competing requirements attend. With input from key stakeholders, prioritize the requirements using criteria like requirement cost, risks, benefits, and complexity.  A workshop like this is a business case focused approach to committing to delivering requirements.  Note: The sponsor can promote the “be in it to win it” nature of the workshop to ensure key stakeholders attend. That is, if stakeholders don’t show up, they miss the opportunity to promote their requirements.
  • Schedule stakeholder meetings. Meet with stakeholders to discuss their needs and requirements and demonstrate your support for delivering those. When a conflict arises between stakeholders’ requirements, bring those stakeholders together to discuss their requirements and brainstorm alternatives to resolve any issues. One-on-one sessions can boost stakeholder engagement, particularly in organizations with a passive-aggressive culture (where people often won’t speak up in a public setting). One-on-one sessions are also effective in conflict-averse organizations, because you can collect and review stakeholder perceptions with the sponsor to support scope decisions when disagreements need to be resolved.
  • Determine if politics are at play. Disagreements between stakeholders may exist, even when they don’t complain. Power struggles, misalignments around strategic direction, and other elusive factors could hide arguments behind closed doors. Work with your sponsor to see if politics are an issue and ask for guidance on evaluating and prioritizing requirements.
  • Communicate and follow up on scope decisions. Ensure stakeholders understand the status of their scope requests and the process for making scope decisions. In budget-constrained projects, stakeholders might be able to propose scope changes if they can provide funding. Make sure stakeholders understand this, and how their desired scope could be incorporated into the project. This includes the process for project change management, which allows for changes to the project scope after an appropriate review. 

Of course, maybe your stakeholders simply don’t have anything to argue about. After doing a quick review of the above steps, have some fun in your next stakeholder meeting by saying “I’ll buy a latte for the first person to come up with something to argue about.”

For more about working with stakeholders, check out Natasha Kasimtseva’s course Managing Project Stakeholders.

 

Coming Up

A day in the life of a project manager can seem like an endless parade of problems, which can turn almost anyone into a pessimist. Reframing problems into opportunities and a sincere search for solutions can significantly improve performance: yours, your team’s, and your projects’. Join Jason Mackenzie and me for Office Hours on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 9am MT, we’ll discuss how positive reframing can improve communication and results at all levels. Click here to join!

My course Project Management Foundations has been updated with several text-based entries in the Table of Contents. You can read up on the hybrid project management lifecycle, get tips on creating a project information system, review a checklist for effective meetings, and more.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 90,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

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