Attended a workshop on ‘Stakeholder Management’ last week. Project Manager from different industries came together and share their experiences. It is interactive and inspirational in nature. The instructor shared some theories, facilitating with real examples and experiences. There were also exception cases raised by other participants that made the whole class burst out laughing.

Once example was when we talked about ‘stakeholder involvement vs re-work effort’. In general, they are in inversely proportional relationship. The higher involvement of stakeholder in the initial stages of a project, the less likelihool that things need to be reworked. One participant, who came from building industry, cited an example of building house for very rich people.

The thing is his former employer got a building contract from a very rich people for a new house for his son, daughter in law and upcoming grandchild. It was said that the whole project need to be completed within 2 years. The tycoon and his team were deeply involved in the project from day 1. However, the design has been approved, buit, revised, re-built for a few time. Now, the big grand daughter has been 4-5 years old. The house is still under construction today.

Another participants chimed in and said that it would be even worse if there are 2 tycoons building houses at the same time which will provoke competitions that all parties would like to build a more luxurious house than others.

The workshop instructor told us that it was un-usal in commercial world. In my opinion, the 3 constrains of a project (time, cost, scope) were not actually constrains at all. As long as the tycoon keep on paying for the project, it can be a never ending project.