An overview of Project Management best practices, put together by Patrice Embry and shown at eeconf 2018.

1. Run Your Project like
a Project Manager
Presented by Patrice Colancecco Embry, CSM

2. patrice-embry.com
Our Scope
• In the session, we will talk about how PMs handle complex digital projects, and the tips and
tricks we use to keep projects on track.
• I’ll discuss how to handle scope creep by firmly establishing scopes upfront (and how to
reinforce scope throughout the project),
• How to recognize risk (and give examples of typical risks that people may not think of), and
• How to handle client issues like delays and indecision (and how to do so without damaging
the client relationship).
• Participants will leave the session with actionable, helpful tools that they can put into
practice immediately to keep their projects in scope, on time, and within budget, all with
proven PM practices.
๏ Not in scope: Project Management tools, agile vs. waterfall (but I’m available later)

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Order of Operations
• About me, about you
• What is Project Management?
• Scope + SOWs
• Budgets + Estimates
• Timelines
• Managing Risk, including:
✓ SOW Assumptions
✓ Scope Creep
✓ Pause Clause
• When to Pull the Plug
• Common Issues - the scripts for hard convos
• Your questions

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Who am I?
• I live outside of Philly
• I’ve seen a lot & I’ve met lots of people
• I really love my profession
• I’m a PM but also a Certified ScrumMaster
• I provide:
✓ Freelance project management
✓ Process Analysis
✓ Project Management Training (for PMs and non PMs)
✓ Project Management Consulting

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My Career Progression
Here
Born School
Learned what
email was
Many jobs
Hated jobs and
switched to freelance
Wrote about
PM
Taught myself
HTML

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Who Are You?
• Freelancers?
• Developers?
• Agency owners/managers?
• Other PMs?
There’s something here for everyone…and we’re going to
cover everything.

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What is Project
Management?
• Not just something to hate or fear
• It’s the science of keeping projects on track
• If you don’t work with a PM, someone on your project team
is PM-ing and doesn’t know it.
✓ It could be you.

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Project Management Core
Responsibilities
• Scope
✓ Re-state the original item that was sold to the client
✓ Ensure that items don’t get added or changed
• Budget
✓ Keep track of hours and other expenses
✓ Plot those against the amount charged to the client
• Time
✓ Create an initial timeline according to the terms of the contract
✓ Ensure that timing is adhered to during the project and make adjustments
where needed

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Scope Budget
Time
The Iron Triangle of Project Management

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Problems:
Survey Says…
• Overselling/over-promising
• Turning a blind eye to red flags
• Never pulling the plug on a dead project

11. Let’s get in the weeds.

12. Scope

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Scope
Scope is the fully-documented item that you are creating. It’s the thing you
pitched and the client bought and what you have to deliver.
✓Scope: A CMS-driven website with 3 page templates + 15 pages + copy +
graphics. 3 rounds of revisions on template mockups, no more than 4
paragraphs of copy and 3 images on each page…
✓Scope: A microsite with a landing page that contains 1 video (provided by
the client) + up to 300 words of copy + 4 custom graphics + Call To Action
button…
๏ Not a scope: A fully functioning website that dazzles the senses and
engages users in a positive, money-spending way.

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Why Is Scope Crucial?
• If you can’t say what it is you’re making down to the
smallest detail possible:
✓ You will never know when you’re done
✓ You will never know when to charge more for extra
work
✓ Your clients will keep expecting more work

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What is an SOW?
• An SOW is a Statement of Work (sometimes called a Scope of Work).
✓ Outlines the scope of the project +
✓ The rough timeline for when it will be completed +
✓ The cost for the work.
• It is the contract that you and your client sign.
• A good SOW will also list lots of risk mitigation.
๏ Not an SOW: Why you or your company is great, what your PROPOSED solutions
would be, your company history.

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How Do I Create an SOW?
1. Start with what you know and document it.
2. Get language from the client’s initial request, your response or
proposal, and any other conversations you’ve had.
3. Go through an estimating exercise so you know if you’re charging
enough.
4. Call out and mitigate risks (“assumptions”).
5. GET YOUR CLIENT TO SIGN OFF ON IT.

17. Budget

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How to Properly Estimate
• Think through all the large chunks of work you need to do.
• Think about all the extra things that also need to happen: Testing? Rounds of revisions?
Thinking through hard problems? Buying plugins or other costs?
• PAD, PAD, PAD, PAD.
• A-hole charge: Consider adding in time for all the extra communication and
aggravation.
• Take all that time, add it up, and multiply it by the hourly rate you charge (Time &
Materials)
• OR consider how much time and effort it will take you and how much profit you want to
make and find a fixed price you are comfortable with. (Fixed Bid)
• And then add another 10%

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Common Estimate TRAPS
• Forgetting a feature
• Thinking the client has something in place that they don’t
• Assuming something will work
• Not including meeting/admin time for all levels
• Not thinking of things at a high enough level

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Estimate Tricks

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Budget
Your budget is the amount of money you and your client
agreed on (that you estimated) for the work that you are now
contractually obligated to provide.
• Take the whole number and divide it in a way that suits
your work.
• $15,000 = 100h at $150/h
★Keep track of your budget at least 1x week

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Common Budget TRAPS
• Hidden features
• Hosting/licenses/The Stuff Everyone Forgets About
• Travel
• Additional stakeholders and reviews

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Budget Tricks
•
•
•
• Having a slush fund

24. Timeline

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Timeline
The timeline is the amount of time you need to COMPLETE the project.
• COMPLETE = built, tested, accepted by client, launched + realistic
post launch.
• Work forwards: Take your budget (100h) and spread it out over the
amount of hours you plan to work each week. 20h/week = 5 weeks
• Work backwards: Take your launch date, count the days/weeks,
and see how many hours you have to work each day/week to make
the deadline.

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Common Timeline TRAPS
• Holidays and vacations (yours and theirs)
• Client-side retreats or events
• Weekends (yep)
• Forgetting about QA + bug fixing + launch + post launch
• “Hope Creep”
• Context switching
• Never updating it

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Timeline Tricks
• Can things work concurrently?
• Can you move forward on X while Y is being reviewed?
• Can you deliver in phases?

28. Managing Risk

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How to Find + Mitigate Risk
• Ask “What’s the worst that could happen” - for every. single. thing.
• Look at things that went poorly before - for similar projects and
just overall
• Take whatever you find and think of the best way to head off those
risks or mitigate them if they happen
Usually, these items are outlined as “assumptions” in the SOW but
can still be explained at the beginning of a project in a document or
email (though it won’t be as easy to enforce).

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“Scope Creep”
• We just have 2 more edits and we can approve it.
• Our writer delivered the copy and there’s more than we figured.
• I just don’t feel like this is quite there yet.
• Maybe it would be better if the [thing] did this instead?
• What we hadn’t considered was…
• Our CEO wants to see it.
• Our branding is going to be changing.
• It has to work with our PayPal account.
• We just found out….

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How to Handle Scope
Creep
• Say no.
• Say “yes, but”.
• If yes, create a change order.

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Common SOW
Assumptions
• Limit and communicate rounds of revisions - list the number of rounds they get (2 rounds
is usually plenty) and what will happen if they want more (“Additional review rounds will
jeopardize the project timeline and add additional charges.”)
• “Client is responsible for _____ (writing copy, purchasing images, hosting, providing
logos, etc) and ____ (delays, use of filler copy and images, etc) will happen if these items
aren’t furnished by the times stated in the project timeline.”
• Name all requirements for anything provided by the client - image files must be in x
format, copy must be provided in x way.
• List out anything that is NOT included. (Things like plugins, configurations, design,
whatever you are NOT doing.) This seems like a no-brainer but it isn’t.
• State clearly that if there is a change in scope, a change order will be issued. (Or
whatever you will do to accommodate more work - a new contract? Written acceptance?
Email acceptance?)

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Pause Clause
In your SOW:
“If a client deliverable — such as input, approvals, or payment —
is late more than 10 business days, the project will be considered
‘on hold.’ Once the deliverable is received and the project is re-
activated, it will be rescheduled based on [Company]’s current
workload and availability. Just to say it loud and clear, it could be
weeks to get you back in the system if the project is put on hold.”
- From nGen Works

34. When to Pull the Plug

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Pulling the plug
on a project
• There’s no way to get a change order
• There’s no way to recoup losses
• There’s no way to satisfy the client
• There’s no way to keep the project team from imploding

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Pulling the plug
on a client
• They don’t respect the contract
• They don’t respect you
• They paused too long
• They don’t make you more money than you have to
expend

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Pulling the plug
on an agency
• They don’t estimate realistically
• They don’t protect their employees
• They don’t absorb and deflect client anger

38. Common Issues

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Common Issues
(and how to PM them)
• No one is getting me their approvals on time.
✓ Say this: “We will assume that you approve unless you
send feedback by [date/time].”
• People keep saying they didn’t know they had to do
something.
✓ Document everything and put it where anyone can
access it. Reference it often. INCLUDE DATES.

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Common Issues
(and how to PM them)
• I feel uncomfortable giving deadlines on things, especially
when I don’t know how long they actually take.
✓ Say this: “I’m hoping you can get this to me by [date/
time]. If that isn’t reasonable, please let me know what is.”
(Bonus! Once they tell you, you can hold them to it!)
• People on my team dislike each other and it’s affecting our
work.
✓ Call out bad or disruptive behavior in a matter-of-fact way.
Explain the impact to the project.

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Common Issues
(and how to PM them)
• I have to tell the client “no”.
✓ Consider options and consequences.
• I have to give bad news - either to my team, my boss, or the client.
✓ Be matter of fact and keep out emotion.
✓ Try to temper bad news with solutions.
• We keep making the same mistakes over and over.
✓ Have project postmortems (“retrospectives”) and start making custom
checklists.

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Common Issues
(and how to PM them)
• There’s no way we can do all of this work in time.
✓ Figure out if there’s places you can work concurrently.
✓ Take a look at revision rounds - can you work “at risk” while a
second round is reviewed?
✓ Try reducing scope to “MVP” with a Phase 2.
✓ If none of that works, get everyone together and lay out the
problem - it’s not just yours to fix!

43. Questions

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Thank you!
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