Blog articles

Project Interface Management Strategy

Getting the strategy right - for interface management, and for the entire project.
That is how we as interface managers can really add value - potentially measured in eye-watering numbers that represent at least 10% of the complete project cost.
This concerns the interrelated processes, the structures, the procurement strategy, and more.
And yet too often, this strategy is flawed, or worse still, not even considered. How many of us do NOT know of a project where interface management was kicked off far too late, or using inexperienced, uninformed resources?

The terms brought up related to Interface Management Strategy

In the image above are some of the terms raised in the last interface management conference.
These speak of roles and responsibilities; project stakeholders; scheduling; integration; management; and governance including audit and other reviews.
Other terms (not shown) focus on maturity, matrices and maps - and of course, the project interface management plan

These are the things that make the difference between under budget and ahead of schedule or far over budget and behind schedule - and it needs to start very early in the project, while the concepts are still being evaluated.

I regularly speak at project management conferences to raise awareness of what good, comprehensive interface management can offer, and the message is getting through at quite a few companies, but more needs to be done.
What are YOUR thoughts on how we can help more projects save time and money?
Join the conversation on LinkedIn.

At the 3rd Interface Management conference (in London, October 2016) delegates were invited to write specific interface terms on paper and put them on the wall. We ended up with 48 different terms. This article is the fourth in a series of five that discusses the themes that came out of this exercise.
This article was written by John Thropp and first published in February 2019.