Project Management Tips

If you need to hire project staff using subcontractors (i.e., staff augmentation), it can be a risky, challenging process. This post identifies some of the problems hiring subcontractors with suggestions for mitigation.

There are several risks to be aware of when hiring subcontractors. Here is an example of what can go wrong. A vendor hired several business analyst subcontractors before I arrived as the PM on the project. These team members came from different backgrounds and time zones, and did not have formal training in business analysis. Things did not go well. The issues with their work included:

• Lack of understanding of the business analysis process.
• Lack of understanding of customer-centric design.
• Communication problems with stakeholders.
• Poor functional specifications creating design gaps.
• Poor documentation for developers creating design gaps.
• Poor professional soft skills.

The outcomes of these issues were significant project delays, design rejections, incorrect functional specifications, and rework. One BA was terminated, one BA was recommended for termination, and I tried to train the rest.

Staff augmentation is low risk when used by IT departments and vendors to fill personnel gaps for roles performing routine daily IT operations. When not correctly executed, staff augmentation can create risks for a project. Regardless of what is on the candidate’s resume, new hires are an unknown quantity until they work for you. Unfortunately, the most notable signs that a new hire is not a good fit for the project can’t be determined for several weeks to a few months. The way to mitigate poor hiring choices is through interview preparation and a good interviewing process.

Preparing to Interview

The goals of the interview are to:

• Verify some logistical information about the candidate.
• Determine if the individual has the technical skills listed on their resume that meets the project’s needs.
• Assess if the team can work with the individual.

Try to structure the interview process so it is repeatable, making it fair for all the interviewees. I do not believe in trick or weirdo scenario questions, although asking questions on how a candidate would handle a common implementation scenario is legitimate.

There are several planning steps the interview, including:

• Assigning a team to perform the interview. Multiple people make for a better assessment.
• Distributing the resume to the team for review and deciding if the candidate is worth interviewing.
• Have the team create a list of technical and non-technical questions for the interviewee.
• Having the team identify several interview dates and times.
• Scheduling the web conference call for the interview. A web call helps verify that an individual is not being coached by someone. Usually, the vendor drops off the call.

Interviewing is a faulty process; you never really know about the person you hire. For example, references are tainted by personal relationships making them a questionable source of information. Alternatively, a practiced interviewee may give a good interview and still not be a good fit for the project. It’s a much better hiring practice if you can start with a candidate who has worked with someone on the existing project team.

The Interview

An interview web call starts with a five-minute review of the project, the role the candidate is to fill, and the role’s responsibilities. For any interview, there are core questions that everyone gets asked, and then specific questions based on the candidate’s background and the role they are to fill. The core questions usually asked include the following: 

• “Please review your last two projects and the skills used?” You are trying to assess if the candidate reflects on past projects in a way that indicates that they have appropriate project experience and skills listed on their resume. Look for detailed technical responses. Have the team ask additional technical questions about specific skills your project needs. Does the candidate answer key technical/process questions that validate their skills?
• “Please review what training and certifications you have?” “Can you provide copies of certificates?”
• “Please describe your role on an Agile team?” “Tell the team about the Agile training you have had?”
• “Please describe how you estimate and manage your task time?”  “What task management applications do you know how to use?”
• “What is your current project status? “If still engaged, why leave?”
• “Please verify your current living location?” “Will you be moving or expecting to work remotely?”
• “What are your working hours?” “How do you manage work availability if in a different time zone than the main project team?”
• “Do you plan on a vacation this year?” “When?” Verify if the candidate requires significant time off for personal or vacation reasons.
• “Please describe how you deal with team design disagreements and how do you resolve them?”

Based on the interview, the team needs to ask itself:

• Did the candidate adequately answer the core and specific technical questions to lead the team to believe that the candidate has the required technical and professional skills?
• Is the candidate going to take significant time off that will impact the project?
• Does the candidate have good speaking skills? Can they express their ideas clearly?
• Does the candidate have adequate writing skills for the position. Ask for some writing/coding samples during the interview for a post-interview assessment.
• Does the candidate have an easy-going demeanor on the call? Do they engage in the conversation and give information easily?
• Does the interviewing team believe they can work with the candidate, and they would fit the project well?

Evaluating New Contractor’s Performance

As part of the onboarding process, I distribute a “Project Team Handbook” to all new team members. This handbook has project and organization policies that all team members need to follow and a list of reasons for removal from the project. After working with a new contractor for several weeks, you’ll better understand their skills and ability to fill their role.

Some behaviors indicating that the new team member is not a fit for their role is when the individual:

• Doesn’t seem to know what or how to do assigned tasks and is always asking for directions.
• Doesn’t update their tasks on the ALM management application.
• Doesn’t produce work on time.
• Requires other team members to finish or revise their work.
• Produces incorrect requirements, functional specifications, design, or code requiring rework.
• Doesn’t contribute to team solution discussions.
• Has poor team working relationships.
• Doesn’t easily collaboration with team members or stakeholders, and does not know how to resolve differences.
• Has poor verbal and written communications.
• Doesn’t engage stakeholders.
• Misses start time of meetings.
• Needs different meeting times from those the group or stakeholders select due to being in a different time zone.

Mitigations for When a New Hire is Not a Fit

Mitigations are partly based on the individual’s employment contract with either the vendor or the organization. For example, while filling a staff augmentation role the individual could be hired on a time-limited basis (LTE), as a full-time W2 employee, or as a 1099 or C2C subcontractor. W2 contractors require more thoughtful handling of performance problems due to employment law.

When I work with an individual who has performance issues, I start by communicating clearly what the issues are, what needs improvement, creating an improvement plan, and setting out conditions for termination. The steps in the intervention process I follow include:

• Informing and advising.
• Coaching.
• Training.
• Role changing. 
• Termination.

When working with these problematic contractor performance situations, consider the following actions:

• See what training and coaching the vendor or the project organziation will provide.
• Work with the engagement manager, organization executive project owner, and available HR specialists to help mitigate the situation. Refrain from surprising anyone with an individual performance issue.
• Fully document the issues, mitigations, and outcomes to reduce the chances of later legal problems such as being accused of harassment, retribution, or discrimination. 
• Document all meetings and discussions regarding performance improvements and termination.

Last, give the individual a chance to improve unless they violate the organization’s HR policies, professional ethics, or commit a crime, all being conditions for immediate termination. If termination of the individual is on the horizon, discuss whether termination will be gradual or immediate and turn over the termination actions to the vendor or the project organization.