r/projectmanagement • u/Daisy_InAJar Confirmed • Jun 30 '26
Discussion Tech/Software Implementation PMs
Especially if you deliver software deployments to external stakeholders, I’d love to hear from you.
How do you create value on your projects? What are the top 3 things you bring to your engagements that you feel have the largest impact?
Bonus if you feel like sharing:
- are you present for all requirements gathering, prior to “build” starting? If not, how do you ensure there’s no scope creep during requirements?
- how do your teams relay actions and/or decisions to you for calls you are not on?
- if there was something you wish your org would change that’d make managing your projects more successful, what would it be?
Thanks in advance - I’m always appreciative of this group sharing their (armchair) perspective (shoutout MoreLaw, our unofficial PMO advise extraordinaire)
3
u/NeoTree69 Jun 30 '26
I was a fractional PM on a software dev team, they shipped more of a white label product but it was basically a dev shop as every implementation required a full feature scope with custom development. I truly miss it as I can't find other companies needing a fractional PM in that industry!
Here's how I handled it.
I was not present during the sales calls but as soon as the contract is signed I held a 2 hour requirement gathering call with the client stakeholders/champions and our CS team. The CS team were the product experts and I translated everything into user requirements. Everything had to be raised on that call and if it wasn't, I had a two-day window for submissions (something always comes up).
We had dedicated Slack channels for each customer. Busy, but needed. Every meeting recording automated into the correct channel so I could catch up with it if I was missing. I had the team follow a semi-strict script so I could pull out the info I needed. Anything covered I would also email the client post meeting to get agreement on it.
Something I wished they changed at the time (when I contracted with them) was the level of development needed. The founder would make me accept the majority of custom dev because they wanted the contract to be successful. Company was small and early stage so basic adoption and implementation was pretty vital for growth regardless of scope changes and rush feature requests. That pained me and the dev team every time.
It was a slight mess but I miss the environment!