Successful Customer Projects
We help ALL parties prepare and execute successful projects
Project Risk
We ALL need to do better!
If every report tells us that project success rates are low, then we need to start thinking about how we drastically alter our approach to delivering them. Since 2014, PS Principles has taught Service Providers to lead customer projects successfully. However, our pursuit for project perfection has taught us one critical lesson.
All project participants must actively engage in the project's journey for it to be successful.
That means the Service Provider and the Customer must be fully prepared for what the journey will discover and ensure that their involvement in the project isn't making more dangerous. While PS Principles trains the Service Provider, who is training the Customer?
Does the Customer Need Training?
Yes! Customers should always demand value from their Service Providers, but they must also understand and aim to improve the impact they have on their won project's chance of success. Strong Customer Engagement leads to legitimate progress and effective use of the project's constrained resources, while Weak Customer Engagement leads to misalignment, rework and the need for more project resources like time, people and money. While we train our participating companies to assess Customer Engagement, only the Customer can make the changes required to improve it.
Be a Good Customer. Ensure your team is fully prepared for its project journey by asking your Service Provider to help you prepare in these ways:
- Clear communication of the people responsible for project decisions (budget, vision, approvals, etc.)
- Internal clarity on decision making and approval processes to avoid project delays
- Resource Commitment Requirements by project stage
- Resource Skill Requirements by Role
- Necessary training on the products and process being used
- Communication of current solution specifics (data, process, etc.)
- Basic understanding of industry and product-specific best practices to avoid misusing the products
- Basic understanding of the methodology being used so that the Customer can prepare adequately for the journey ahead
- Basic understanding of Test Execution - only the Customer can validate if the solution is ready for use
Customer Training Resources
We have two key resources available to customers who want to do what they can to ensure their project is successful. While following these best practices doesn't guarantee a successful outcome, we do know that they do improve the the effectiveness of the project's journey.
PART 1: STAKEHOLDER LEADERSHIP
(14 min)
This video is for the Customer's Sponsor and Stakeholders to help them identify how they can lead their own teams to engage with the vendor-managed project more effectively.
PART 2: PROJECT TEAM ENGAGEMENT
(14 min)
This video is for the Customer'sProject Team who needs to engage with the vendor throughout the project.
Other Resources
Ask your service provider if they have best practices for the topics below, but if not, here are some helpful (generic) resources. While these resources might advertisse a product, we are not recommending those products and you should always ask your service provider for more informartion:
- How to Build a Use Case (13 min)
- How to Build a User Story (3 min)
- User Acceptance Testing Explained
Why select a PS Principles' Participating Organization?
Participants in our PSCC and CFPM® programs are doing something over and above those who just pay their consultants to "go to training". They are embedding an evidenced-based certification program into their daily operations. They ask their consultants to submit evidence of field-based activities to validate skill development and they encourage them progress through the program and ultimately, become the mentors of that program within their organization. The PS Principles' programs are unique and all-encompassing providing each individual with the following:
- Best-in-Class Professional Services learning materials (The Seven Principles of Professional Services)
- Strong awareness of the need for Proactive Project Leadership
- Certification through customer-facing experience rather than knowledge-based exams
- Ongoing coaching & recognition
- Ongoing creation and reuse of collective wisdom
Extraordinary Lengths
No-one can guarantee that a consultant will deliver perfect service. However, PS Principles' participating organizations have gone to extraordinary lengths to embed a third-party skill development program into their organization. They have provided every consultant with the opportunity to learn and practice their craft within a framework that has been proven to be successful all over the world.
Questions?
If you would like to validate that an organization is actively participating in our programs, please contact us and we will respond promptly. If you have any questions on how we might be able to help you work better with your Service Provider we would be more than happy to help you out.
Our goal is to help all parties involved in customer-facing projects to achieve better outcomes by reusing best practices that help them prepare and execute better.
References Cited Above