How to maximise short term project management contracts

Posted on | April 24, 2009 | Author: | lindsayascott | No Comments

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Just a follow on from the Short Term Contract blog piece, just been speaking to a colleague about a role we have at the moment, it’s a four week opportunity, which is a little out of the norm (contracts are usually 3 months initially at least) but that’s not surprising with the way the market is at the moment. It got me thinking about some of the professional PM contractors I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with over the years and there is a distinct difference between these guys (people I class as professional contractors who have years of experience contracting as a project manager) and people who are pretty new to the contract world. This latter group might be contracting for the first time due to recent redundancies and layoffs and finding that contracts are the quickest way to get working and paying the bills. This new group of contractors are possibly missing a trick when it comes to maximising the short term contract they find themselves hired for.

Take my current seasoned contractor, he was initially hired as a project manager for a local government role, for a three month contract. He took the role on a reduced rate because he needed to secure his next appointment, knowing he needed to batten down the hatches for a few months whilst the country battled against the recession. Now seasoned guy knows he has three months to make an impact and at least try and secure an extension if possible to ride out the storm.

Contrary to one opinion voiced at a recent debate; a competitor of ours actually voiced the opinion that its in the interest of a contract project manager to spin the project out as long as they can so they can secure extensions and therefore increase their revenues from contracts, yes really(!). Interestingly this was to an audience of professional PMs so it went down like a lead balloon. Let’s get this straight, no professional project manager worth his or her salt would put their reputation on the line for a few more lousy weeks or months extension, there rant over!

So back to our seasoned contractor, and a professional one at that, what could he do to try and secure futher work within an existing contract he is working on?

There are the top two things he’s currently doing that serve as lessons for the uninitiated:

State of mind – he walked into that contract day one determined to deliver what was expected and to a high standard & quality. He was determined to make sure that the client knew they had hired the right guy straightaway from day one. No time was wasted easing into the role gently, he got in there and started to initiate meetings with the people he needed, brains that needed to be picked in order to deliver the objectives of the role as soon as possible. Contracting is definitely a different state of mind to permanent employment and people who find themselves leaving permanent employment for the first time and entering the contracting world need to understand the nuances quickly and act upon them. Straightaway the client knows they’re going to get value for money from this contractor and the contractor knows he’s off and running.
Indispensable – ok so we know that not a lot of people are indispensable but actually its more about perception than anything. Our seasoned contractor started to become quickly established within the current team and working well in the roles and responsibilities originally talked about and agreed at the interview. He quickly had the project on track which allowed him time to understand more about the other issues impacting the wider programme. Workpackages were being dropped, left to bob along unloved; some permanent workers were stretched with other commitments leaving work unmanaged; some skills were lacking in certain project governance areas which meant firefighting had started with earnest.There are two things here that contractors can take advantage of – remember that the job specification never really gives the whole story, often when you first start a contract the role never seems to be as demanding as originally thought at the interview (do line manager’s talk up positions to get good contractors on board?) leaving some time to unearth other work and issues that he can offer his help on. The second is that the contractor is often brought onboard because of particular skills that may not already exist within the organisation or project environment and will offer these skills wherever they can. Often this selling of skills means they’re taken onto other projects and pieces of work and hence further months of work.

Furthering contracts prove to be in everyone’s interests, securing additional work whilst in a contract is one of the easiest ways a contractor can secure income for the coming months. Just think of it like the sales and marketing analogy; it’s easier to keep existing clients than it is to find new ones.