Reflection on “Say No! by Denene Brox, May 2012”

This article discussed another side of the communication, which is how to deal with a sponsor or client with unrealistic request, knowing that this can be a very tricky situation as they have so much power over the project. Most the problems happen because most of the sponsors tend to expedite a timeline, or limiting resources, and in many cases they also shift scope or increase it without taking into considerations that impact on the project, and expecting the team to keep the project on track.

There are particular ways or strategies to approach the project sponsors; fist, the project manager should get the sponsors involved from the very start to be able to manage what they expect from and through the lifetime of the project. Another strategy that the project manager should do is explaining the consequences and the impact of new request on the project and its constraints.

With all that, the project manager might fail to convince the sponsors not to apply a particular demand, and that is why he/she should always have a plan B, and that should be considered as a part of the risk management. Also that reminds me of one article that I read lately, it suggests that some project managers get into a personal conflict with sponsors for a particular project, and it advise the new managers to keep things professional and have the ability to admit that both of the project manager and the sponsor have the same goal, which is the firm’s success.

It is also crucial for the project manager to avoid surprises, because the only thing that sponsors hate more than saying No, is saying Yes without being able to achieve what you are being asked to do within the project, so saying No, is better than saying Yes and not meeting their expectations since that will lower their confidence level in the ability of the project manager in leading that project, and so it will be severely compromised. Finally, if that all didn’t help, the project manager in some cases has to take a stand for what he/she believes to be right, even if that means that the project manager has to quit his job on that project.

Prince Mohammed Bin Abd Al Aziz International Airport in Al-Madina in KSA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In that project, the scope was changing too often, because the design of the steel connections started before the main designer gets the approval on the steel sections from the consultant, and that was based on the request of our client, the main contractor.

It was really hard to say No to our client, especially that the money was not an issue for them, so they were very clear, they will compensate any changes or additional efforts through money, especially that the design cost is the lowest among the other departments; because everything is still on papers.

Additionally, my company didn’t really have that culture that supports the idea that sometimes it is necessary to say No to the client, so they would accept anything that they are being asked to, even though that the client in these projects can be very tough and even rude to our top management. The stress used to end up at the bottom of the chain where the design team is, and that was very stressful, which made two designers out of eight quit their job because of all the redo that we had to do, which resulted in more stress on the rest of the team members.

I find all of what was mentioned above to be part of the soft skills that all project managers should have, and also I believe that the project managers should always be supported by numbers and hard data. They should also move away from the subjectivity and move forward to the objectivity of the issue, and try as much possible to be polite, even when they say No, and try to stick to what is in the original contract.