Stuff project managers say…

23rd February 2012, by Jen Layton

Although this video is pretty campy, I’m sure that anyone who has ever worked as (or with) a PM would laugh and cringe (as I did) at the various clichéd sound bites that it poked fun at.

The role of an agency PM is hard. As the video shows, we’re generally misunderstood creatures - but we don’t just say this stuff for our health. It really is vital to effective project management. To demonstrate why, I’ve picked out a few real blinders from the stuff we say and elaborated on exactly why we say it.

So we have a bit of scope creep…

Delivering a project against key milestones is crucial to getting best value for clients - which is key to project management. Scope creep can eat into estimated time and, if unchecked, compromise the quality of the ultimate solution.

Has the statement of work been signed yet?

The statement of work details the commitments and expectations of both client and agency. A signed SOW signals the start of the project and acceptance of the deliverables laid out within – basically, the benchmark for measuring final outputs against. 

We’re going to need to take this offline.

Sometimes, unexpected issues occur and need resolving as quickly as possible. For an online project, the quickest way to do this while minimising any impact is to take it offline.

Thanks for sending the files, but they’re flattened and we need them layered.

Any files requested for amendment need to be layered (where the image elements can be isolated and worked on individually). This will always be the case. If a PM requires flat images, they will ask for them.

Would you say these requested changes are mandatory or nice-to-haves?

Establishing project priorities allows the whole schedule to move forward efficiently and smoothly – ideally, priorities would be provided with additional requests!

So next time you hear a PM utter a timeworn phrase such as those above, don’t just sigh mentally, but appreciate that we are just trying to get the best job done, in the quickest time possible, for the best cost, while protecting our clients’ interests – the essence of good project management.

• Insight