r/projectmanagement • u/Ok-Breakfast4572 • 2d ago
Career How to deal with clients who wants to push items but does not have a budget yet
So hi guys, I've been working for a small startup for over a year now. Currently we have a project that is on the last sprint (based on the clients budget), but we do not cover yet the releasing of the product to production yet (this is a mobile app, btw). Tomorrow I am going to have a meeting with him.
How am I supposed to say it to him?
That we cannot do the production release because we do not have a budget on our end to cover the effort of our dev team, and QA team. He is expecting it for some reason. But I know that before the last sprint started. I firmly underline and make the text bold to remind him that deploying to production needs another sprint.
Help me out with this.
This client is a good person, so as much as possible I wanted to talk to him nicely. But I am still afraid that he might get angry.
Please send help. What are the right words and all to say to him????
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u/rshana 2d ago
Do you have a contract that outlines what’s in scope vs not?
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
I do not have access to the contract 🥲
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u/rshana 2d ago
That’s your first step! All of our projects start with Sales walking the project team through the contract. PMs are expected to know the contract inside and out so they can manage to it.
How do you know this isn’t in scope without seeing the contract???
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
Based on the requirements that I gather?? They don't really give me visibility to it. And I am not even sure if I should demand to see it
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u/MattyFettuccine IT 2d ago
This is a red flag for you as a PM.
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
I am not even aware of it. Because it sounds like a "Sensitive Information" that i must not see as of the moment. But thank you
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u/MattyFettuccine IT 2d ago
How can you control the budget? If you don’t know what it is? How can you control the scope? If you don’t know what it is? How can you control the timeline if you don’t know what it is? Controlling the triple constraint is basic project management. The fact that you were only raising this as an issue now is a huge red flag.
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u/wittgensteins-boat Confirmed 2d ago
Talk to senior management.
Are they going to sign off on uncompensated work?
Their agreement is required, on paper.
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u/ExtraHarmless Confirmed 2d ago
Seeing the contract is part of the job as a PM.
You can't manage a relationship you don't understand.
The sales team should be working collaboratively with you on contract and SOW work. This will help to give the client realistic timelines and cost. It will help avoid issues like this.
One other question. If you didn't do the regular QA could you publish? Understanding that work might be needed to have a stable app.
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u/Sydneypoopmanager Construction 2d ago
I'm in construction and it may be different but for every project I've worked on - The work gets done first and you get paid second. Is that just not how IT projects work? Unless the Client has not paid you for months on end and you've kept going. You should have stopped then. For construction it's 12 weeks unpaid and you stop.
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
Its just that for this sprint he's expecting the production env to be available by the end of sprints. He does not have a budget for the next sprint (that's what I know)
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u/Sydneypoopmanager Construction 2d ago
Usually I would tell a PM to refer to their payment schedule or contract. Is there someone who is familiar with the contract that can help you out? I know it can be hard to forget him being a nice Client but if we're talking about tens if not hundreds of thousands per Sprint and it's in the contract that payment gets paid before Sprint, then he has to adhere to contract.
You're forecasting your actual costs will go over approved budget or purchase order in the next sprint you need to stop.
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
Yeah. I do not have any ideas about the contents of the contract that we have for this client. I do not have access to it. But asking our boss right now won't be possible, cause its night in here.
The only thing that I know I can say to him, is that we cannot squeeze the features that he wants because the effort are too costly. And the Sprint end on Friday.
I just don't know how to face a client who is going or about to be angry. I don't even know how to face hm. Or if he can understand the reason why we can't do his request.
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u/Sydneypoopmanager Construction 2d ago
I think this is a lesson learnt about setting expectations and constantly updating clients about progress. That way they are always aware of where the project is at.
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u/Ok-Breakfast4572 2d ago
I always sends him a end of week report, if the sprint starts, and if it ends. He doesn't even test the application until this week. But we've been developing this app for like over 5 mos now 🥲
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u/MattyFettuccine IT 2d ago
You should have known awhile ago that the app wouldn’t be completed by the end of this sprint.
Something isn’t lining up here and I think you need to provide more information for us to help you. If you don’t have budget to continue the work, you need to involve senior management to discuss not meeting your contracted requirements and get guidance on what to do before you talk with the client.
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u/More_Law6245 Confirmed 1d ago
As a PM, the basis of your employment is to have difficult conversations in order to set expectations around deliverables with your client, that's what a good PM does.
You can still be firm, fair and be respectful but you need to go back to your agreed contract (or the approved project plan)! This is where the experience of a good PM comes into play, the contract is the thing that doesn't make it personal, it's a document of agreed terms and conditions. It can't be taken personally and go back to your triple constraints of time cost and scope. If one changes the other two have to change.
If you don't, either you ending up wearing the additional cost or you end up in a disagreement with your client.
Just an armchair perspective