Project Management

Managing the Project Interfaces 193

have a clear idea of the customers. Very often, the biggest chal-
lenge with external customers is getting them to articulate their
needs in a clear and final way. Although unclear objectives may
be a problem with internal customers as well, the stakes are
higher with external customers because there are contracts—
sometimes with fixed dollar amounts. In addition, some external
customers have the attitude that because they’re paying the bill
they have the right to change their minds about what they want.
Whether that’s philosophically true is irrelevant; the important
point is that such a view of the world can make life very difficult
for you. So, be attentive and take precautions.

The User

User groups are a special case of external customers, primarily
when you’re developing or producing a product that’s marketed
and sold to outside consumers. I like to think of users as latent
stakeholders. In most cases, they don’t realize that they’re stake-
holders, as they’re probably unaware of your project and the
products it creates until those products are released into the mar-
ketplace. You must often act as a surrogate stakeholder by asking
key questions about users’ likes and dislikes, preferences
and choices, and so forth.
The organization’s market-
ing department may play
the role of surrogate user,
so projects that involve user
groups often necessitate
maintaining a strong inter-
face with marketing.

Suppliers

Nearly all projects require materials that must be obtained from
outside companies. Finding reliable suppliers of high-quality
products can be difficult, though. This is one reason why many
companies adopt preferred supplier programs.Make sure you
know whether your company has such a program. In principle,
these programs attempt to forge long-term, cost-effective rela-
tionships with high-quality suppliers. Unfortunately, however,

Get Educated!

If you believe that you’ll be

leading many projects that

involve external customers, get edu-

cated in the legal and contractual

aspects of project management. Many

good books and training courses

cover these subjects.