« What to Do When Your Project Slips
What is an Interim Manager? »

Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part IV

March 15, 2008 | Author: admin | Filed under: Procurement Management, Contract Administration & Close-out, Project Management Best Practices

Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership - Part IV (#4 in the series Project Managers and Vendors: Creating a Successful Partnership)
By Linda Miller of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Project management offices (PMOs) and project managers (PMs) are a necessity in today’s law firms, to ensure that IT projects stay on track. Anyone acting as a PM on a project requiring multiple outside vendors knows that if not managed properly, chaos can reign. Working with your own staff on a project can usually be orchestrated with ease, but throw in a vendor or two (or more) and the project can quickly get out of hand. Creating a successful partnership between vendors and your own project team is a necessity to ensure project success.

Contracts, Role Definitions and Clear Expectations

After vendors are selected, a contract should be drawn up that clearly outlines the expectations and assumptions set in the negotiation phase to limit surprises during the project for either the firm or the vendor. Vendors should be prepared to deliver requirements outlined in the statement of work (SOW).

Historically, successful project engagements are ones where the firm and vendor work together as a project team. Expectations for vendor participation in the PM process may vary, and it is wise to invite the vendor PM to help compose the project plan. Require deliverables from the vendor such as a list of identifiable risks and a project plan or task list that includes predecessors for each task. Merge this information with the firm’s overall project plan. The vendor should work with the firm’s PM to review the overall project plan to ensure that all predecessors are in place and that resources are aligned correctly. Clearly establish the role of the vendor in regard to the project management methodology in place; this is especially critical when working with more than one vendor. Confirm the vendors’ understanding of their respective roles by asking them to repeat their functions in the project. What they heard may not be what you said.

If working with multiple vendors, define to whom they should bring their questions and concerns and establish a liaison between the vendors and the firm. This liaison is typically the project leader or manager in the law firm. Some vendors are competitors, so set the expectation that all project participants will behave ethically and in a spirit of camaraderie and teamwork.

This article was first published in ILTA’s July, 2007 white paper titled “Project Management — Broadening Your Scope” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at http://www.iltanet.org.

Linda Miller is co-owner and principal of Traveling Coaches, Inc., leading the company’s team of project managers, application specialists and document management engineers. Linda has extensive experience leading projects with law firms and consulting law firms on project management. Since 1995, Linda has served as the company’s technology partner managing all technical and project management operations. Linda is a dynamic presenter and implementer of project management, adult learning theories (training techniques) and IT management level courses. Linda holds many technical certifications in the legal industry enhancing her valuable experience as a consultant. Linda can be reached at lmiller@travelingcoaches.com.

Share this article:
  • StumbleUpon
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • YahooMyWeb
  • blogmarks

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 and is filed under Procurement Management, Contract Administration & Close-out, Project Management Best Practices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No comments yet.

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Project Management Categories