Company takes in projects from a variety of clients – the vendor and client relationship is really complex. This can give desired and fruitful results, only if managed carefully and properly.
Before starting the project, collect the requirements, document the scope in a statement of work, and get it signed by all involved. Ensure to get as much of the requirements as possible up front. Some employers continue accepting changes even after scope is finalized and signed-off. The reason is to maintain good relationship with the client as the client is highly influential and very prospective.
Try To Build A Healthy Relationship
Spend time building relationships with others. Once an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation is established, all aspects of project planning and management—including negotiating and problem solving—are much easier to navigate.
How do you handle clients who try to add and change scope at the worst possible phase in the project life cycle?
First check if you have proper procurement documents in place with all the clauses well documented then you can refer to the same and ask your client to submit the change request to Change Control Board.
Secondly check if you have proper processes in place and they are religiously followed with exactly no exception for any influential or powerful client.
Next is look whether the process involved the right people? Compare the people who signed off on the project to the people behind these new issues. There is a possibility that the people involved at the time of requirement gathering are different from the ones requesting for change. Also check the same at your end as well there is a possibility that requirements are taken by someone in IT who heard it from a manager, who heard it from a programmer or an end-user. And then someone with no real understanding of the requirements signs the specification.
Lastly check if requirements missed, were important enough that their exclusion places the project at risk? As you are aware that adding requirements at this stage would definitely put your project at risk. Either these requirements are critical to success or they are not.Some client plays with words in saying “you guys are the experts and I know this would not take much time”. Be very careful before committing anything. It is always safe to say “Let us come back to you after impact analysis on other constraints”.
Be Honest
As no one is perfect so it is always safe to tell the truth about why you cannot meet all the expectations of your client. This way clients will trust you more in the long run. Even if it is uncomfortable, but being honest and conveying the incompetency of your organization, can build better relationship with your client, and you have prevented your client from setting wrong expectations from your organization.
It is always suggested to clearly outline the scope-of-work with what is in, and what is not in the scope, so that there are no surprises later on where client generally says “we thought it is already covered in the scope”.
In case your client is poor in communicating and is not very good at explaining his requirement. The best ways to handle such clients is to reconfirm your understanding by repeating it again and again. If you feel people are not comfortable, you can use the words like “sorry everyone, I am repeating it so that we all are on the same page”. This would result in clear expectations and prevent you from scope related conflicts later on.
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