Improving the success rate of fixed bid Projects is a challenge for any project manager in IT services. Most of the service projects come with tight deadline and requirements unfreeze. In my experience, in most of the small and medium size organizations, the pre-sales and sales team decides the timeline based on their rough estimations. The project comes to project manager as a semi-finished document, with fixed final delivery date. The success rate improves with quality management, scope management, communications management, and of course Issue management. Let us discuss few important points, which can help the project managers to achieve success rate in their fixed bid projects. This can be applied to T&M, and Retainer projects too, based on few or no modifications.
1. In the project Initiation meeting, make sure that your customer defines their requirements in detail – at the maximum level. You need to know exactly what it is that must be delivered, to whom and when. Try to make it specific, write it up formally and get them sign it off. This document will become the basis upon which to measure your success.
2. Try to involve your customer throughout the entire project lifecycle – including analysis and planning as well as executions. Inform about every status, including the risks. This helps us to manage their expectations. Make sure the communication is happening with right information at right time. Weekly status reports, regular weekly calls and use defined templates as much as possible.
3. Plan your delivery timelines short and more realistic. I suggest never agree to lengthy timelines. If possible, split your project into “mini-phases” – and keep them short – less than 4 weeks. This keeps everyone motivated and focused on targets. Let every “mini-phase” include a milestone and add delivery deadlines to your milestones. Try to deliver the commitment on every deadline, no matter what. If you can’t deliver, inform your customer about it as early as possible and give them realistic re-scheduled plan.
4. Organize a small change control board which includes your sales team, account manager and customer. Only authorize changes to your project scope if there is no impact on immediate and final timelines. Get approval from Change control board and then get their buy-in to extend the delivery dates if you need to.
5. Let the Quality be the most important achievement anytime. Keep it high with your deliverables as much as possible. Constantly review quality and never let it slip. Implement “peer-reviews”, external reviews, and web-Ex demos with customer to improve the solution, and to meet your customer’s needs.
6. For every phase – including the mini-phases, with their integrated phases – hand it formally over to customers and get them to sign an acceptance form to say that it meets their expectations. It makes your deliverable 100% complete.
7. Issues Management is an important phase – in support level. Plan about handling your issues and risks as soon as they are identified. Prioritize and resolve them before any impact in project. If required, prepare a separate issue management plan and publish regular burn-down chart.
Share with me, your experiences and techniques in improving success rate of fixed bid projects. It can help us to discuss more.
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