The Project Client

You need to know who you are doing the project for, and what involvement that person or persons may need to have in order for the project to succeed. Enlightened project managers seek both ‘buy-in’, ‘agreement’ regarding significant decisions, and ‘sign-off’. In some cases, you are the client. If that is the case, this topic needs little attention. If not, read on.

Although you can generate some ‘buy-in’ by promoting the project to the client, and encouraging their involvement, be very cautious if you have to work too hard at this. It is better to have no project than a project with no client.

There will be many important decisions in the life of a project. Running decisions past the client can avoid costly rework and a loss of the confidence of the client. If a decision is needed, but there are no compelling reasons to go one way or another, the client can be invited to make a decisions with minimal risk to the project. Where there is risk to the project of a poor decision, you may need to spend considerable time promoting your preferred outcome.

Sign-off is the approval of the client. If you are the client, don’t worry about this. If someone else is the client, you need their approval. Rather than leaving this to the end of the project, it is sensible to seek approval at regular intervals – commencing with the Project Objective or the Project Definition, or maybe even commencing with approval to spend time writing the Project Objective and the Project Definition.

...Geoff