Managing Expectations

A software project manager spends most of his time in planning, scheduling, reviewing, discussing, facilitating and communicating stuff done and not yet done. Proactive communication is one of the best tools a project manager has in his kit. This can be used to manage expectation of the stakeholders, i.e. the sponsor, the program manager, the project leader and the team members.

When it comes to making commitments, I feel that the best way to start is to under promise and over deliver.  Whenever a PM is called into a meeting with the program manager and client, there is tremendous pressure on him to agree to certain things, like scope, budget, schedule etc. In such cases, the PM should always try to set the correct expectations. Expectations set too low, will cause erosion of confidence of stakeholders on the PM. Expectations set too high makes the PM look over ambitious. Later on it adds to misery of the PM if that expectation is not fulfilled. So the PM should take care to set expectations correctly whenever he makes a promise.