Aunty Entity: Answers all your PM questions
Dear Aunty Entity,
I have a client who keeps moving the deadline to a week earlier. This has happened two times in the last month and there were mistakes in the end products that we didn’t have time to fix. Now I have an unhappy client who is accusing us of being unprofessional. I’ve tried everything – even expensive lunches don’t work. Help!
Signed, Confused.com
Dear Confused,
It’s a fact of life that rushed deadlines compromise quality of work and ultimately the client’s business. If you haven’t already, draw up a project plan to be agreed by the client before the project begins. Project plans list tasks to be completed by the project team and the client. If you make it clear that some tasks need to be completed or approved before the next can begin this should go some way towards giving you a break and educating him about the project life cycle. It should also be made clear before the project begins that bringing the date forward/removing tasks from the project plan will impact on the project.
If this fails, take him out for another expensive lunch, spike his drink and take some compromising photos to blackmail him with at a later date. Contact me directly and I can give you the number of the guys I use (dwarves/donkeys/drycleaning extra, discretion assured).
Dear Aunty Entity,
I met a client for the first time last week. Unfortunately she’s a bit overweight and I asked her when the bundle of joy was due. How can I salvage the situation?
Signed, Bigmouth
Woooooaaaah Bigmouth.
Your better be very good looking, extremely witty or at least good for those two bottles of Cristal you had to buy as a remedy. Apart from that, you’re on your own.
Laters.
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Totally agree.. Deadlines get work done. Reasonable deadlines and project planning gets good work done.
@bigmouth: I’d start looking for your next client
Brilliant advice. I like the practicality of the second piece of advice best
LOL! yeah, never ever ever mention a pregnancy until she does first, even if she’s wearing a “baby on board” t-shirt…..you just never know…
Seriously guys, I guess there are more interesting issues than those, eh?
I sometimes have a feeling that you’re running out of ideas on what to post about.
this type of thing just really brings down the level of quality here tremendously. what’s next? horoscopes?
Bigmouth,
One solution is to tell her that you just thought she was pregnant because she had that glow of happiness around her face. She was exhibiting such joy, you only assumed that it could be from a baby on the way.
The one thing that lets down your site is the stock photo material. Please consider something else. The rest is good, but the pictures are from another planet. I like down to earth advice, but the images jarr with the writing.
Well, I believe to plan the project, will only help to keep the client a little bit happier. If the client is not organized and is not committed with your deadlines, well, he will be doing the same thing again and again.
Fast, cheap, reliable. Choose two.