Have you or your firm contracted for an (outside) Project Manager (PM) to manage one or more of your projects?   Or are you planning to engage an outside PM for one or more projects in the near future?   Or have you been disappointed with the results obtained using outside PM’s on prior projects? Many contracted Project Managers are ineffective in their roles.   This piece focuses on how to get (far) better results out of contracted or subcontracted PM’s in the future. There are a number of reasons that (contracted) PM’s are marginally effective or ineffective in their roles.  The reasons run from inability to work with the end client internal team, to poor communications habits, to lack of follow-through, and fifty other reasons.  After some reflection on the matter I believe that the biggest reasons, and what to do about them, boil down to the following 11 factors: 1. “Last Minute PMs” – A PM is selected for a project or sourced from a third party firm at the very last minute, perhaps even after a project or program has actually started.  The PM steps into a situation where things are already happening and may be delinquent, over-budget, poorly conceived, … Continue reading WHY CONTRACT PM’s FAIL AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT