18
Managing Expectations
Do you believe that managing stakeholders’ expectations is nothing more than properly managing project scope? Do you believe that managing stakeholders’ expectations is nothing more than effective project communications? Do you believe that every project is successful that completes on time and on budget? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this chapter is for you.
Value of Reviewing Stakeholder Expectations Management
Although managing stakeholder expectations speaks to the essence of project management and is a key objective of all project definition, planning, and control activities, it is often ignored in introductory project management books. Why? Well, I think there are many reasons, but there are two main ones:
Many consider it to be an advanced project management topic.
Many people do not know how to manage expectations and thus just lump it with other project management activities.
Although I agree that it is very difficult to isolate strict expectations management activities or talk about managing expectations without discussing other aspects of project management, there is tremendous value in taking a concentrated look at this:
Expectations are a critical success factor—Although scope, budget, and schedule are core elements of managing expectations, there is more—and if you ignore it, the odds for real project success are greatly diminished. We get into this more later in this chapter.
You can make a difference—Because expectations deal with perceptions and often get into the “art” of project management, they can be less tangible, which makes it more challenging to offer guidance. This won’t stop us. We review several powerful, tangible techniques you can employ to better guide stakeholder expectations.
Sign of project management maturity—Nothing says “experience” and “I’m not a rookie” more than a project manager who understands the importance of guiding stakeholder expectations and who constantly focuses on this aspect of their project.
Although we have referenced many tools and techniques in earlier chapters that help manage expectations, this chapter provides the opportunity to highlight those important items one more time and the opportunity to take a focused look at this vital area of project management. We explore the critical aspects of expectations, the key components of successfully managing stakeholder expectations, the common mistakes to avoid, and the essential principles and techniques that will guide us in any project environment.
Critical Aspects of Expectations
If you are going to attempt to influence something, you first need to know what makes up that “something.” For expectations, there is one key concept and four critical components that need to be understood for effective management.
Balancing Reality and Perception
The key concept is that expectations are shaped by both reality and perception. In an ideal project, both the reality and perception of project objectives, performance, targeted results, and expected impact are aligned upfront among all stakeholders during project definition and planning, and then remain this way throughout the project. However, this ideal situation is elusive. Even when expectations are aligned during planning, there are many influences and factors that can alter expectations during the course of the project. This relationship is depicted in Figure 18.1.
FIGURE 18.1
The expectations balance.
As a project manager, your challenge is to guide the actual “real” performance of the project while simultaneously aligning and balancing the perception of each stakeholder. This work is a dynamic, ongoing venture that is only complete when the project is closed.
Not Just Scope Management
There is more to managing expectations than just managing scope. Now, don’t get me wrong; managing scope is a very important part of managing expectations, but it’s not everything. There are four critical components of expectations. Each expectation element is important to the success of the project and is subject to the natural push and pull between project reality and stakeholder perceptions. This relationship is portrayed in Figure 18.2.
FIGURE 18.2
Aspects of expectations management.
Let’s review each expectation component in greater detail, explain the specific elements included in each group, and discuss some of the tools and techniques that you can use to help manage each part.
Critical Success Factors—This aspect includes the traditional measuring rods of scope, schedule, and budget. In addition, it includes any additional acceptance criteria that you established with your key stakeholders during project definition and planning. The heart of project management (and nearly this entire book) is focused on managing expectations around these elements, but the key tools are a solid project definition document, a realistic schedule, a baseline budget, early detection of performance variances, and disciplined change control.
Project Impact—This component highlights the change impact of the project output (results, solution, and work products). It accounts for any work, process, or organizational change experienced by any stakeholder as a result of the project outcome. This aspect is commonly neglected by less-experienced organizations and project managers. As Dr. Stephen Covey (a world-famous personal development coach and author of The 7 Habits book series) always says, the key here is to think (and plan) with the end in mind. With this clarity, you can better communicate a common vision of the project outcome and help stakeholders prepare for the changes that will affect them.
Work Products—This category covers things such as “that’s not what I asked for,” “that’s not what I meant,” and “oh no, you gave me exactly what I asked for.” This could be considered a part of project scope, but depending on the level of detail in your scope statement, it might not be adequately addressed. This category deals with the detailed expectations surrounding the individual work products that each stakeholder has. At a minimum, it focuses on requirements management, quality management, and overall project approach. We discuss key requirements management techniques that greatly improve your effectiveness here.
Project Execution—This final component deals with the day-to-day execution of the project. Although not as critical as the other aspects, a lack of attention to these elements will certainly create situations that can easily lead to underperforming projects, and then to major expectations management activities. This category deals with the efficiency and effectiveness of the project team, and with the confidence the stakeholders have in them to successfully deliver the targeted solution and in you to lead them there. Common elements in this group include interactions between team and client stakeholders, and clarity of roles, responsibilities, work processes, and work assignments.
We review many of these elements in greater detail in Chapter 19, “Keys to Better Project Team Performance.” In addition, many of the communication and leadership techniques we reviewed in Chapters 16, “Leading a Project,” and 17, “Managing Project Communications,” come into play here. Important principles to remember here: Make sure team members are prepared for their interactions with stakeholders; do not assume stakeholders have a clear understanding of project processes and their work assignments; always look at the project from their perspective; and proactively review (with a gentle touch) key tasks and targeted completion dates.
Although we have broken down expectations into various components, which are summarized in Table 18.1, it’s important to remember that effective expectations management is not complicated. The success formula for each aspect of expectations management is relatively straightforward:
Get real—Set realistic expectations; get initial agreement (buy-in) from affected stakeholders; review assumptions and constraints; talk about it; address it; get clarity and understanding.
Keep it balanced—Manage changes; align project reality with stakeholder perceptions; proactively communicate; educate; constantly validate and affirm perceptions; regularly assess performance; reset expectations as needed.
Follow through—Deliver; honor the agreements; get the work done; “under-promise, over-deliver.”
TABLE 18.1 Summary of Critical Expectation Components
Expectation Area | Elements | Key Tools and Techniques | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Critical Success Factors | Scope statement Project budget Target dates Performance versus cost versus time Acceptance criteria Agreement on what defines success | Project definition document Project plan Change control Performance reporting Realistic schedule Kickoff meetings Milestone reviews | Be proactive No surprises Ensure right people are informed of changes Forecast missed deadlines |
Project Impact | ROI Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) Individual work task changes Business process flow changes Organizational change impact | Acceptance criteria Stakeholder analysis Prototypes, simulations Future workflow models Pilots Phased implementations | Often neglected May need separate deployment project Organizational change management plan needed |
Work Products | Requirements Deliverables Interim deliverables | Requirements management Quality management Iterative development Prototypes, scenarios, and simulations Pilot implementations Product reviews and sign-offs | Get something tangible early Heavy customer involvement Use internal team QA reviews |
Project Execution | Decision-making process Roles and responsibilities Work assignments Project processes Common goals Personal credibility Avoids issues Team interactions with stakeholders Leadership confidence | Responsibility matrix Realistic schedule Resource plan Team charter Kickoff meetings Walkthrough schedule, processes Coaching team members Internal reviews | Take other perspective Don’t assume understanding or clarity Be aware of busy team members Use gentle touch to proactively remind team of key tasks, responsibilities, and dates Always set context to improve understanding Educate along the way |
Seven Master Principles of Expectations Management
Now that you have a good feel for the breadth of managing expectations, you can understand the value of many key project planning and project control fundamentals we reviewed in prior chapters. Before we do a quick encapsulation of those items and then delve into two other powerful tools for managing expectations—requirements management and kickoff meetings—let’s look at the seven master principles that drive all expectations management activity:
Get buy-in—Whether it’s the critical success criteria, resource and time commitments, or individual work assignments, invest the time and energy to gain their trust and to make sure you have genuine buy-in from the affected parties. This is why effective planning is a must.
Take care of business—This is the “blocking-and-tackling” fundamentals of project management. Set your baselines, manage to them, and properly handle and communicate any variances.
Communicate the big picture—With the end goal in mind, clearly sell the vision on where the project is going, what the targeted solution will be like, and why each work assignment is important. People want to know “why” and understand the importance of their role.
Listen and be alert—If stakeholders are not on the same page or have unstated expectations, there are always cues and signals. Look and listen for them and make it a priority to deal with them quickly. When we discuss managing requirements, probing for unstated expectations will be a key focus.
Take their perspective—We discussed leadership in Chapter 16, but its importance is worth re-emphasizing. This ability is a mainstay for effective expectations management, and it empowers you to anticipate the needs and concerns of your project stakeholders. It also drives a flexible mindset that allows you to adapt approaches, plans, and specifications to best meet the situation at hand.
Never assume—This key principle needs constant attention. Many don’t realize the assumptions they are working under until it is too late. To help you avoid assumptions, keep the following in mind:
Err on the side of overcommunication.
Always set context for all your communications.
Constantly confirm understanding.
Clearly communicate what is expected from each team member.
Continuously reset expectations.
Verify whether you have the correct solution to meet the project’s objectives (rather than just validating documented requirements).
Understand priorities—There are always many stakeholders, often with their own distinct views of the world and sets of priorities. Although you always aim to find compromises that appeal to the entire group, it is important to understand the decision-making process and whose voices have greater influence and priority. In particular, always be very clear on who controls the budget for your project.
Essential Elements of Managing Expectations
Let’s take a look at the essential tools and techniques that are available to the project manager to effectively manage stakeholder expectations.
Project Planning and Control Elements—A Quick Review
At many times during the chapters on defining, planning, and controlling a project, we referenced managing expectations as a key reason or benefit of specific project management tools and techniques. Table 18.2 and Table 18.3 summarize the most important project management tools, techniques, and actions to manage stakeholder expectations.
TABLE 18.2 Summary of Essential Planning Elements to Manage Project Expectations
Element | Impact on Expectations |
|---|---|
Project Definition Document | Defines why we are doing this. Defines what organizational-level goal(s) is supported. Defines how this project fits/aligns with the other projects. Defines expected benefits from this project. Defines what will be done. Defines who is impacted. Defines how success will be measured. |
Scope Statement | Sets boundaries for what will be done and what will not be done. |
WBS | Enables stakeholders to see the work that must be done. |
Project Budget | Sets cost and ROI expectations. |
Estimates | Foundation for budget and schedule. |
Assumptions and Constraints | Key for better expectations around estimates, scope, budget, and schedule. |
Project Schedule | Sets time expectations. |
Project Plan | Sets expectations for how project will be managed. |
Project Organization Chart | Identifies and communicates who is involved and how team is structured. |
Stakeholder Analysis | Defines who is affected and what their needs are. |
Communications Plan | Defines how the communications needs of project stakeholders will be addressed. |
Responsibility Matrix | Sets expectations regarding role and work tasks. |
Project Approach | Stakeholders need to know what is going to happen and why approach needs to be tailored to best manage stakeholder expectations. |
TABLE 18.3 Summary of Essential Control and Execution Elements to Manage Project Expectations
Element | Impact on Expectations |
|---|---|
Kickoff meetings | Notification project is underway; facilitates expectation setting for the group. |
Project approach | Maximizes requirements definition and product/system development approaches that provide early and frequent feedback loops and that focus on demonstrating tangible aspects of the targeted solution. |
Status reports | Regular, consistent performance monitoring and reporting keeps everyone informed. |
Change control | Allows scope, time, and budget expectations to be reset and controlled along the way. |
Quality management | Focused on satisfying real customer needs and ensuring the solution does the right thing. |
Risk management | Anticipates, forecasts, and attempts to avoid impacts to the critical success factors. |
Issue management | Communicates issues to the right people. |
Requirements management | Drives expectations on the product of the project (more on this later in this chapter). |
Completion criteria | Clarifies expectations for any work package. |
Formal sign-offs | Documents acceptance of work products at points in time. Used with milestone and work product reviews. |
Reviews | Validates expectations of work products along the way. |
Milestones and checkpoints | Validates expectations of project performance along the way. |
Requirements traceability matrix | Keeps visibility of targeted requirements throughout the project process. |
Product backlog | For agile projects, keeps visibility on targeted requirements. Entries are prioritized and continuously refined during the project. |
Team charter | Communicates team rules and procedures (more on this in Chapter 19). |
Leveraging Kickoff Meetings
Kickoff meetings are simple but powerful tools to help manage expectations. We could have discussed these in the chapter on project communications (Chapter 17), as is typically done, but kickoff meetings are such an instrumental tool in managing expectations, I felt it was better to do it here.
In general, a kickoff meeting is simple. Get all the targeted stakeholders together to officially review the project and get it underway. So why focus on this technique? Kickoff meetings are invaluable for accomplishing certain things related to expectations management, and many people either do not do them properly or underutilize them.
Primary Goals
The three primary goals for any kickoff meeting should include the following:
Give official notification that the project (or project phase) is underway.
Achieve a common expectation baseline for all stakeholders.
Start the relationship-building process between project team, customers, and other stakeholders.
Key Recommendations
With these goals in mind, here are some key recommendations for better kickoff meetings:
The meeting size, length, and logistics will vary depending on organizational culture, project size, number of stakeholders, project methodology, and project importance. Plan your kickoff meetings accordingly.
As a rule, don’t try to do too much or cover everything. Use follow-up, mini-kickoff meetings with focused groups or specific individuals to cover the details.
For general kickoffs, get everyone there if possible, especially the executive sponsors.
Set context for everyone. Focus on the “why.” Review project purpose, objectives, and value to the business.
Clarify the priorities, target goals, and critical success factors.
Paint the picture. Enable everyone to visualize how the final solution will look, how it will affect them, and how all the pieces fit together.
Get to know each other. Start the relationship-building and teamwork processes. Introduce everyone.
Review roles and responsibilities and project team organization. Emphasize each person’s role, expected time commitment, and value.
Establish your leadership and the energy for the project. Set the tone; generate enthusiasm and motivation.
Review important project plan items:
Scope and major deliverables
General approach (methodology)
Critical milestones
WBS
Schedule
Estimated effort and budget
Key assumptions, risks, and constraints
Key project communications processes
Process/procedures for monitoring project performance
Whenever possible, hand out team keepsakes (or promotions) at the beginning of the project. It helps to build team unity and project awareness.
Ask for feedback. Clarify any confusion now.
Ensure people know what to do first/next (short-term). They should be clear on their next steps.
Requirements Management—The Difference Maker
A large percentage of expectation misunderstandings have their origins in the requirements gathering and requirements management processes. The frustrating thing about these situations is that most of them can or could be avoided. Although the subject of requirements definition is a field of study itself, we will leverage the Pareto principle here. We focus our attention on addressing the common requirements-related problems and the key principles and guidelines that make the most difference in your future requirements definition and management efforts.
Common Problems to Avoid
To better understand the value of the recommended principles and guidelines, let’s take a quick review of the common problems with gathering and defining requirements:
Not well written—Requirements are ambiguous, inconsistent, too high-level, or not clear.
Incomplete—The list of requirements is not complete to properly define the solution.
Unstated expectations—The list of requirements does not accurately reflect all the expectations held by the stakeholders for the targeted solution.
Inflexible process—Although specifications do need to be agreed on and finalized at certain points, defining requirements is an evolutionary process and things do change. The system for managing requirements must anticipate this reality. This is one of the strong aspects of using an agile approach.
Inadequate definition process—Using statements to describe a targeted solution creates many opportunities for misunderstandings and misperceptions—the age-old problem with language. In most cases, you need to employ other techniques and methods to verify that you are defining the right solution. Techniques that help stakeholders visualize the final work product or solution are especially helpful.
Lack of education—Often, the stakeholders who are defining the solution requirements don’t fully understand the entire requirements process and the significance or impact of their decisions.
Ineffective review process—Some examples include using a process that is not a good match for the reviewers’ natural working method or schedule; using a process that does not ensure reviewers are engaged; or using a process that does not make it easy to see what changed from the previous version.
Using the wrong tool for the job—In addition to the challenges with leveraging the right techniques and methods to elicit requirements, the wrong tool is used to capture, store, and manage the documented requirements. In many situations, a requirements management tool that uses a centralized database foundation is needed to properly handle the needs of the project, solution, or organization versus the document-based approach. See Chapter 25, “The Fun Never Stops,” for more information on when a requirements management tool is needed.
Principles to Remember for Better Requirements Management
To help you develop better requirements and improve your ability to manage both requirements and expectations throughout the project, review the following principles:
Requirements definition is an evolutionary process. Plan your project approach and requirements management tools accordingly.
The requirements definition process should consist of a combination of gathering techniques. The specific techniques you choose should be based on risks and characteristics of the project.
The requirements review and approval process should facilitate clear understanding and engaged participation, and ensure feedback is properly handled.
Requirements should describe what, not how.
Requirements should avoid any unnecessary constraints.
Requirements should be complete, explicit, realistic, and understandable by all parties.
Requirements should be linked to the intended solution.
Requirements should be prioritized.
Listen; do not pre-judge or draw conclusions too quickly.
Strive to convert expectations into requirements.
Educate appropriate stakeholders on the requirements process.
If requirements are for an enhancement, change, or addition to an existing solution, update the original requirements artifacts that define the total working solution versus relying solely on new, specific, separate artifacts for the requested change.
Use a tool to manage requirements that meets the needs of the project, solution, and organization.
Guidelines for Better Requirements
To avoid the common problems identified earlier and greatly increase your requirements definition prowess, note these guidelines:
Focus on user experience. Understand how the user interacts with the targeted solution.
Understand the user’s workflow.
Understand the user’s work environment.
Always ask “why?”
Include other non-language exhibits or models as part of the requirements definition.
To drive out unstated expectations, understand the following from each user representative:
What are the biggest problems now, and why?
What functions or features will be the most useful, and why?
What aspect of the new solution are you most anticipating, and why?
What are your quality and performance expectations for the final solution, and why?
To help make better design decisions, define requirements in both present and future needs whenever possible.
Identify each requirement with a unique ID.
Document any accompanying assumptions.
Use a quality checklist to improve the effectiveness of your requirements.
Monitor and control changes to requirements.
Whenever possible, involve the people who will be testing the targeted solution in the requirements definition process.
Use a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) to link each requirement to one or more aspects of the final solution. This is a powerful tool to ensure that every requirement is accounted for and to better control “gold-plating.”
Figure 18.3 summarizes the main points reviewed in this chapter.
FIGURE 18.3
Overview of managing expectations.