The importance of cross-organizational PM meetings

Too often, during SaaS implementations or vendor-managed migrations, a critical meeting is overlooked; we hold full team meetings with all groups and internal status reviews that are usually set up while defining your project governance. The discussion often missed is the one that is with the PMs from all organizations to align on the effort. I’ve seen this when joining a team on a project already in motion and as a missing communication point within the communication plan. I recommend that you ensure that these meetings are part of the project governance, whether you’re coming on board during the project initiation or on one of those in-flight projects.

Why are these critical? In a previous blog (Dear SaaS Vendor PM), I wrote about the importance of the PM partnership, and these meetings help shape that relationship. This is the chance for the PMs to work out any differences in plans, resolution of issues, etc. Discussing these for the first time with the entire team can lower their confidence level, which could have a major impact on the PM’s ability to complete the effort. Furthermore, this is an excellent venue for discussing cross-organizational activities and dependencies across multiple plans, for example, the vendor’s standard plans for their implementation efforts and your internal project plan. I like to take both projects and, using a split-screen view, highlight the activities within each that are critical to currently scheduled and next-up activities. These meetings will focus on key topics that need to be ironed out by the whole team but allow the PMs to go into that discussion with a shared understanding and suggestions for team resolution, where needed.  

Another benefit is that it helps to build camaraderie between the PMs since this is a good time for just some “getting to know you better” chats. 

Want more details on developing plans, ensuring task alignment, and outlining all of the required project communication paths in your PMP (The Other PMP)? Let's connect.