Once you've got the job, software projects are delicate activities and the client needs love. It's up to the Account Managers to keep everyone on the same page, especially if there is no Scrum Master.
The Account Manager is responsible for invoicing, resource management (booking developers) and conflict resolution.
An important source of comfort for any client is a feeling that they are in control and they know the basics of what is going on. The fundamental part of this is who is working for them and how much it is costing.
It’s painful when a client finds out indirectly (e.g. via LinkedIn) that a developer they worked with has left your company. It makes them feel unimportant and may damage trust. Even worse is when the client discovers it by seeing someone else join a call without any explanation.
It's important for Account Managers to stay involved with client projects past the sales stage and into the implementation stage. The best way to do this is to call them once every 2 months or so once the project gets going, just to guage their overall satisfaction and happiness.
Communication is a critical part in project management and it's essential to provide as much information as possible to your clients so they know the project's progress.
To have a successful project, it is often imperative to have an experienced Solution Architect or Tech Lead running the project. They can support your lesser experienced developers, keep projects on track, or just help make those important tech decisions that pop up throughout a project.
Often, you only have a handful of people who are experienced enough to do this. So how do you share the love and make sure all of your projects go well and that their experience is shared throughout the company?
Small increments of work add a lot of administrative overhead to work, drastically reducing company profit from client work. As a general rule, make sure any billable client appointment lasts 1 day at a minimum and continues in a similar manner throughout the remainder of the booking.
Working onsite has a number of benefits such as increased communication with the client and increased perception of value. However, if a developer is onsite for an extended period, they can start to feel disconnected from your company and their co-workers.
As a consultancy, your developers expect to see a variety of projects in their time working for you, and if they get stuck on any one client for too long, they may decide to look elsewhere for that variety.
It’s easy sometimes to accidentally undersell something or someone by using potentially derogatory words that may give a client the wrong idea.
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When your team has completed an important milestone successfully, they should be rewarded with a morale boosting event such as lunch, dinner, the movies or bowling.
Most companies have staff varying in experience and price.
While all staff pass strict recruitment procedures including technical and communication assessments, all staff have different skill sets. For example, some have a broader level of knowledge and some are more proficient at project management.
It’s easy when looking at availability reports and skill matrices to dehumanise the developers you’re assigning to work. Make sure to always keep the human touch by doing the following:
Each day, you should have a list of scheduled follow-ups generated by the FollowUpThen service. Review this list daily and complete your follow-up calls and emails in the following order of priority:
The majority of client issues arise from miscommunication and miscommunication on invoices and accounts issues can make things very difficult very quickly. Therefore, you should always process invoicing on at least a weekly basis.
See Rules to Better Timesheets
During invoicing you should ensure:
It's often quoted in marketing circles that it costs between 60% and 600% more to sell to new clients as opposed to existing ones. This means you should nurture your existing client relationships during and after a project, as you have a much better chance of getting more work from them than from a new client.
Scrum already covers the roles of the Developers, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master, but from a consultancy’s side, there’s also the Tech Lead and the Account Manager to consider.
Confusion often arises when these roles overlap, especially when sales or account managers step into delivery activities or when tech leads discuss matters outside their scope.
You won the job with a great 1st Date (aka Spec Review), but no marriage can last without ongoing effort.
Every now and then, a client will purchase training or event passes and be unable to attend. In this scenario, 2 things should occur in order:
Ideally, all projects should be managed using Scrum, with Sprint Planning, Reviews, and Retros, Daily Scrums, Sprint Backlogs etc., but some client engagements are too short to justify this.
In these cases, as a minimum, there should be a backlog and a Kanban board, and the developer should still be doing Daily Scrums with the client.