A new project comes in, you’re excited to hit the ground running, the kickoff meeting is here, and then—you discover you’re facing two (or more!) stakeholders with diametrically opposed priorities.
You start supporting a new client, the development team gets their local environments set up, and progress is being made. Just when you think you’re in the clear, you find out there’s another vendor “behind the scenes” whose work sometimes conflicts with yours.
We’ve all been there. What starts out as a straightforward project or support client with clear KPIs and scope of work can turn sideways in an instant when additional parties are introduced. How can you keep things on time, on budget, and keep everyone happy?
There’s a delicate balance, a tight-rope we have to walk sometimes when managing these types of engagements. Drawing on experience from multi-stakeholder projects like Habitat for Humanity and clients with 3rd-party developers like New York State Senate, we’ll cover some of the common pitfalls that accompany clients who bring multiple stakeholders or third-party vendors to the table—and how to avoid falling prey to them:
- How to approach department heads with different priorities
- Avoiding “too many cooks in the kitchen” for major decisions
- How to standardize workflow and best practices with in-house or vendor developers
- Managing multiple vendors tasked to work on one project
- How to deal with a lack of clarity around ownership of tasks
Attendees will benefit most if they have experience managing projects or maintenance programs. We recommend this session for various roles, including project managers, business analysts, digital strategists, and lead developers.
About the Presenter
Kelly Dassing is a Customer Success Manager at Mediacurrent and has been in client services for Drupal projects for over 5 years. Kelly is a Certified Scrum Product Owner and serves as primary point of contact for both client stakeholders and development teams for Habitat for Humanity, Mercy College, and New York State Senate, among others.