Occasionally clients want to participate in project activities. Client participation and collaboration can be beneficial when the project team and client team work together toward the common project goals. However, problems can occur when the client fails to deliver on promised commitments putting the entire project at risk.
It is important that all planned client project participation be clearly defined, documented, and agreed to in the project plan and client participation should be included in an INTERNAL risk register that is not distributed to the client.
Client participation may range anywhere from providing client site work facilities to embedding client staff into the project. Common client participation includes agreements to:
- Review and approve project documentation in a timely manner or within agreed to time limits
- Provide physical access to the work site during normal work hours and after hours if needed
- Provide basic workspace including desk, phone, and internet
- Provide a qualified single point of contact for project communications and information transfer
- Participate in any factory testing, site testing, or acceptance testing as scheduled in the approved project schedule
- Prepare client site and personnel as needed for any hardware or software installation and testing
All client participation should be clearly defined inappropriate project document sections named:
- Client Participation
- Assumptions
- Conditions
- Dependencies
Frequently the project statement of work or project contract include penalties should the client fail to perform agreed project commitments.