| The big day has arrived, the day on which
your customer decides which of
the competing bidders has won
his new project. As the Project
Manager, you may or may not be
the first to hear the news. Customers
work differently. Sometimes a
member of the customer’s staff,
or more than one, will “whisper”
the news to his opposite number
in the bidding company and sometimes
full protocol will be observed,
with a formal communication being
sent from the customer’s Contracts
Manager to your Commercial Manager.
Either way, the Project Manager
will be one of the first to hear
the good news that your bid was
considered to be the best and
that the job now starts in earnest.
Bearing in mind that a large part
of the Project Manager’s job is
man management, one of your first
duties should be to arrange a
celebration for all the people
who worked on the bid. This sign
of appreciation will do wonders
for staff morale and will ensure
that you have a willing team.
Depending on the value of the
project, this celebration might
be a beer in the pub or a full
blown lunch. Don’t forget to include
everyone or this will have the
opposite to the desired effect.
When having your celebration,
use the opportunity to praise
past efforts and lay out future
expectations. At this early stage,
your other major task will be
to ensure that someone is arranging
your office accommodation. If
you work for a large company which
likes to co-locate its project
personnel, you will need to make
sure that someone is taking care
of space, storage and communications
so that your staff can quickly
settle down and devote themselves
to making the project a success.
After the celebration (the same
day might not be such a good idea),
call your first project meeting
for your senior team members.
At this stage, it is unlikely
that your company will actually
have signed the contract for this
project so before that happens,
more work is necessary. Your team
will need to again review the
customer’s documentation to ensure
that they still say the same as
they did when you responded to
the bid. It’s not unheard of for
a customer to try and sneak in
a few extra requirements when
they think you’re not looking.
You will also need to make sure
that your responses to both the
Invitation to Tender and any subsequent
questions have been included in
the new documentation and that
the price, payment plan, technical
solution and everything else,
have been acknowledged. As long
as all the documentation is in
order, it is normal practice to
go ahead with the project, even
without the benefit of a signed
contract. Often, the customer
will have sent a formal Instruction
to Proceed agreeing basics such
as the price. You will probably
need this to get project funding
signed off by the senior financial
people in your organisation, enabling
you to get on with the job...
and that’s where the next article
will take us. -------------------------------------------------------
Michael Russell Your Independent
guide to Project Management -------------------------------------------------------
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