Feb 25, 2013

What to Do when the Customer is Delaying Your Project

Summary:

0. Solution: Wait, be patient
1. Customer delaying the project is a major risk. Prepare for it in planning phase of the project
2. Escalating the problem with the customer may seem unprofessional
3. Communication with the customer is your responsibility as the project manager
4. Abandon project is a choice
5. Could have been avoided by accurate project planning
6. Make it clear in communication plan
7. (Project manager's) communication skills to convince the customers is important.

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Contrary to the popular belief, the customer is not always right. In fact, sometimes the customer may be the one delaying the project by not giving the approval of a completed phase when required, by not communicating effectively, by missing deadlines for the review of the deliverables – shortly, by being aloof to the project.

Customer's delay translates into delay of the project, monetary loss, and decrease of the motivation and morale of the project team. Sometimes the customer may be too busy, especially if he or she represents a large organization and yours is just a side project for them. Other times, the customer may not see the implications of his or her attitude or may be just relying on the project manager's decisions. Regardless of the motivation, customer's delaying the project is a problem that you, as the project manager, must solve.

Ideally, this situation could have been avoided by accurate project planning. A communication plan, including deadlines to be respected by both sides, and monetary penalties for project delays should have been approved by the customer. More important, since customer's performance is actually a major project risk, mitigation plans for it should have been included in the risk management plan. However, in small projects, sometimes this documentation or part of it has been overlooked.

In this case, you as the project manager need to use your communication skills to convince the customer to get involved in the project and respect deadlines. The project team obviously costs money and time to your organization, so you could claim that waiting time is billable. However, unless this has been agreed upon in a contract, it may be difficult to convince the customer. In this case, you need to attempt other strategies, such as organizing face-to-face meetings explaining the gravity of the situation and the negative implications to the project's time frame and cost.

If the project is extremely important for your organization and you cannot afford losing this customer or abandoning the project, despite customer's total lack of interest, you could decide to wait and insist for the customer to approve the next phase of the project, even if the waiting time means your organization is losing money and possibly resources. These drawbacks should be balanced against the advantages that completing the project would bring, regardless of the delay from the customer. This is, however, a risky choice and should be discussed with higher management and agreed by the organization.

Escalating the problem with the customer may seem unprofessional since communication with the customer is your responsibility as the project manager. But if the project risks being delayed or cancelled because of customer's non-involvement in the project, this issue becomes the responsibility of the higher management. They could use their authority to convince the customer to agree with the next phase of the project.

The last alternative if the customer is delaying the project too much and all efforts to get the customer "in" fail is to abandon the project and the customer, and focus on other projects, making sure you learn from your mistakes. The customer is not always right, especially when the organization undertaking the project is losing money.

Customer delaying the project is a major risk that should not be overlooked in any project; it needs to be identified as a risk and mitigation plans should be developed in the planning phase of the project.

cf. http://www.rationalplan.com/projectmanagementblog/what-to-do-when-the-customer-is-delaying-your-project/

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Best Regards,
Nguyen Hung Vu [aka: NVH] (in Vietnamese: Nguyễn Vũ Hưng, グェン ヒュン ウー, 阮武興)
vuhung16plus{remove}@gmail.dot.com , YIM: vuhung16 , Skype: vuhung16plus, twitter: vuhung, MSN: vuhung16.
vuhung's facebook  Nguyễn Vũ Hưng's blog on Free and Open Source, Blog tiếng Nhật, Vietnamese LibreOffice, Mozilla & Firefox tiếng Việt

Disclaimer: When posted to social networking groups include, but not limited to Linux Users' Groups, Free and Open Sources forums, mailing lists, the above is my personal opinion and is *not* the opinion of my employer(s), associations and/or groups I join.

Opera's next generation browser will use Webkit

"Next generation browser" của Opera, sẽ dùng Webkit, một layout engine
đang được áp dụng cho các trình duyệt Safari (Apple) và Chrome (Google)
thay vì engine hiện tại Presto của Opera cho các thiết bị di động của
Apple và Android vào tháng 3 tới.

Q: Vì sao lại là Webkit chứ không phải Gecko (của Mozilla)?

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/18/opera-ice-webkit-browser-android-ios/

Agile, DSDM, Atern

Looking for an Agile software development method that fits your big and
long projects and products, instead of old-fashioned Waterfall and too
risky pure Agile? Dynamic systems development method and Atern may be
the the choices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_systems_development_method
http://www.dsdm.org/dsdm-atern

--
Best Regards,
Nguyen Hung Vu [aka: NVH] (in Vietnamese: Nguyễn Vũ Hưng, グェン ヒュン ウー, 阮武興)
vuhung16plus{remove}@gmail.dot.com , YIM: vuhung16 , Skype:
vuhung16plus, twitter: vuhung, MSN: vuhung16.
http://www.facebook.com/nguyenvuhung
Nguyễn Vũ Hưng's blog on Free and Open Source:
http://nguyenvuhungvietnam.wordpress.com/
Học tiếng Nhật: http://hoc-tiengnhat.blogspot.com/
Vietnamese LibreOffice: http://libo-vi.blogspot.com/
Mozilla & Firefox tiếng Việt: http://mozilla-vi.blogspot.com/

Disclaimer: When posted to social networking groups include, but not limited Linux Users' Groups,
Free and Open Sources forums, mailing lists, the above is my personal opinion and is *not*
the opinion of my employer(s), associations and/or groups I join.

Feb 24, 2013

Tong ket SFD 2012 Hanoi

Tổng kết Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2012 Hanoi,

Mình có may mắn được tham gia tổ chức SFD Hanoi 2012 (với tư cách phó ban tổ chức, speaker)

Năm nay chắc ngoài Hà Nội sẽ tổ chức SFD 2013 giống như năm trước thôi.

Một vài highlights/con số/thông tin

Số người tham gia: khoảng 300

Số speakers: Khoảng 20

Thời gian chuẩn bị: 03 tuần (hơi gấp, nhiều việc đấy nhé)

Press releases
http://vfossa.vn/en/news/Community/Software-Freedom-Day-2012-and-FOSSAHUS-2012-8/

Thông tin tại wiki của website SFD chính
http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/2012/Vietnam/Hanoi/HLUG

Lịch trình
Bản công bố: http://fossathus.com/lich-trinh
Bản trunk: http://wiki.vfossa.vn/sfd_2012_hanoi (update liên tục)
(hoặc bản nháp: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U3vO-LgBTDrnjqhcrtpI_eM9_7IpltAIkYN0W5RcJ1o/edit)

Presents
http://fossathus.com/cac-bao-cao

Form đăng ký
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dC1aV0RQQkFaN091Y3ZsemVybUNzSUE6MQ#gid=0

Plan chung
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=1

Kêu gọi, quản lý speakers
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=1

Danh sách BTC (hơi bị đông, lôi kéo hơi bị nhiều)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=0

Khung chương  trình,
được lên tới phút, ở nhiều địa điểm (phòng chính, (nhiều phòng phụ)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=5

Tài trợ (cực quan trọng)
phải gom được tiền càng sớm càng tốt, giục/phi xe đến tận nơi "anh/chị cho xem xin xiền"
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=2

Kế hoạch tài chính
- Lần này xin được nhiều
- Nhiều người làm hộ
- Tài trợ khá khá rồi nên chả cần lo $ lắm, miễn phí cả cơm kẹp cho vài trăm người
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=3

Danh sách cộng tác viên
(Chủ yếu là sinh viên)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=6

Báo đài -> phải liên hệ trước để bắn tin cho họ khi kết thuc sự kiện
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgOqPQzRjQPOdGJIZW11N1JjTzRLeDBJd2J4OEtVRmc#gid=8

Slides
http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=sfd2012hanoi

Mailing list:
http://lists.vfossa.vn/pipermail/sfd2012/

Ảnh từ máy vuhung + anh Thành + Hiếu (tổng hợp):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vuhung/sets/72157631563214601/

--
Best Regards,
Nguyen Hung Vu [aka: NVH] (in Vietnamese: Nguyễn Vũ Hưng, グェン ヒュン ウー, 阮武興)
vuhung16plus{remove}@gmail.dot.com , YIM: vuhung16 , Skype: vuhung16plus, twitter: vuhung, MSN: vuhung16.
vuhung's facebook  Nguyễn Vũ Hưng's blog on Free and Open Source, Blog tiếng Nhật, Vietnamese LibreOffice, Mozilla & Firefox tiếng Việt

Disclaimer: When posted to social networking groups include, but not limited to Linux Users' Groups, Free and Open Sources forums, mailing lists, the above is my personal opinion and is *not* the opinion of my employer(s), associations and/or groups I join.