Have you ever had this happen?  You’ve been running a project somewhat successfully, except for the fact that it seems like everything is turning into a potential change order.  The customer has signed off on twelve significant change orders so far, you’ve agreed to eat the cost of five other potential change orders and you can see the need for more down the road.  It’s not time to point fingers ….you’re well beyond that point.  But it is obvious that more time was needed for planning because there’s no way requirements contained enough definition if you have this many change orders so early in the project.



What do you do?  You can sense the customer is becoming frustrated …increasingly dissatisfied with how things are going.  Every time you mention the word ‘change’ eyes roll or there’s a long sigh on the other end of the phone.  The project sponsor may even be avoiding your phone calls (like how your mom used to hide when the Avon lady came up to the front door and there was nothing she wanted to order… or was that just my mom?).



Let’s skip ahead a week in the project and now you’re at a point where you need to present the customer with another decent sized change order – a $14,000 change to cover the addition of a previously unidentified interface including design, development, and all the necessary testing efforts associated with it.  At this point the customer throws up their hands and proclaims, “Enough is enough.  That’s it.  No more changes!”  What the heck do you do with that?  How do you respond?



I’ve had this happen on one of my projects and I’ve gotten enough feedback from project managers who’ve had this happen to come up with a three-step process that will hopefully work…or at least help.  I’ve not had to use it yet – hopefully I never will, but I’ll identify it here and I will welcome all input our readers might have on ways to refine it or on entirely different processes they’ve used successfully.







Step #1 – Take it offline



First, take the discussion offline.  Discussing it, arguing over it, pointing fingers about it – none of that is going to serve anyone well by doing it in the middle of the weekly status meeting.  You’ve had many change orders already, it’s understood by everyone that there is an ongoing problem.  Really, the solution needs to come about from a discussion between the project sponsor or customer project lead and the project manager.  Take the discussion offline and map out some tasks to get you to an agreeable solution.  Ultimately, it should be obvious that, based on the current joint frustration level, a replanning effort of some size is needed.  Rather than push forward with more change orders right now, move forward with one – a change order for half the amount of a 1-2 week replanning effort.  The delivery team organization eats the other half of the cost due to an acceptance of half the blame for lack of up front detailed planning.



Step #2 – Go back to senior management



The next step is to take this proposal to your senior management to get their approval.  The replanning effort could cost $10,000 - $20,000 or more so you need to get some upper level approval on taking on half the cost of the effort.  Be sure to let them know of the possible risks – meaning more expenses down the road that they could have to meet the customer halfway on.



Step #3 – Re-plan