The Skill of Managing Expectations

Learn how to manage the expectations of project stakeholders.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 5 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(bright music) Welcome to the skill of managing expectations. Your role as a project manager involves helping your team and stakeholders know what to expect out of a project. In these lessons, we'll discuss why managing expectations is so important, as well as some tips on how to manage your team's expectations. As the project manager, you're the person stakeholders will come to with questions about the project, and you're the one person they'll hold accountable for the success or failure of the project. With that said, it's important that you're constantly managing stakeholders' expectations. Using the information collected during your stakeholder interviews, the historical information you have about the stakeholders, and information you can get from other project managers who've worked with the stakeholders previously, you should be able to understand your stakeholders enough to know what they are concerned with. Managing expectations helps to increase the probability of project success by ensuring that your stakeholders are clearly aware of and understand the project benefits and risks. This allows the stakeholders to be active supporters of the project and help with the risk assessment of decisions to be made during the project life cycle. By anticipating their reactions to the project, preventative actions can be taken to win their support and minimize any potential negative impacts. Simply put, actively managing stakeholder expectations decreases the risk that the project will fail to meet its goals and objectives due to unresolved stakeholder issues, and limits disruptions during the project. There are four key elements to ensure your stakeholders' expectations are realistic and manageable. Before your project even begins the execution phase, make sure to double-check that project success is clearly delineated. Use your project objectives and goals as a basis for project execution. Constantly refer to these objectives as a guide. Do not hold out on positive information for your stakeholders, in other words, don't make them wait before they learn of the success or value of the project. When communicating with your stakeholders, keep the information and the language at a basic level, keep it simple.

Intermediate Provider : Danny Howell 5 Lessons · 11m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Managing expectations helps to increase the probability of project success by ensuring that your stakeholders are clearly aware of and understand the project benefits and risks. Expectation management is all about communication and in this Project Management: The Skill of Managing Expectations course, you will learn interpersonal and management skills as well as supporting documentation that will help you ensure expectations are clearly understood by all project stakeholders. Managing expectations eliminates two common issues in project management: the client blurring the line between an expectation and a commitment, and a client having unrealistically high expectations. When disputes arise, during a project, the source can usually be traced back to miscommunicated expectations. This course is designed to help you set realistic expectations upfront, clearly communicate them by determining the best method to give project updates, as well as manage and deliver on expectations which will lead to the overall success of your projects.

What You'll Learn

Identify the 4 key elements of managing expectations
Evaluate stakeholder expectations across your projects
Explain the benefits of using interpersonal skills to manage expectations
Develop a change log document
Evaluate changes that require updated project documentation
Determine the best method for giving project updates to communicate expectations clearly

Key Takeaways

Managing expectations increases the probability of project success by ensuring stakeholders clearly understand the project's benefits and risks.
Expectation management is fundamentally about communication, supported by interpersonal and management skills and by supporting documentation.
It addresses two common project issues: clients blurring the line between an expectation and a commitment, and clients holding unrealistically high expectations.
When disputes arise during a project, the source can usually be traced back to miscommunicated expectations.
Success comes from setting realistic expectations upfront, communicating them clearly, and then managing and delivering on them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is designed for those involved in project management who want to set realistic expectations upfront, communicate them clearly, and manage and deliver on them to support overall project success.

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn interpersonal and management skills along with supporting documentation that help ensure expectations are clearly understood by all project stakeholders, including identifying the 4 key elements of managing expectations, evaluating stakeholder expectations, developing a change log document, and evaluating changes that require updated project documentation.

What topics does the course cover?

The lessons cover the importance of managing expectations, supporting documentation and information, interpersonal and management skills, document updates, and a Test Your Knowledge section.

What skills does this course help build?

It supports skills in expectation management, implementing projects, project assurance, project management, project risk management, and stakeholder management.

Why is managing expectations important for project success?

Managing expectations increases the probability of project success by ensuring stakeholders understand the benefits and risks, and it helps prevent disputes, which can usually be traced back to miscommunicated expectations.

Professional Certifications and Continuing Education Units (CEUs)

Project Management Institute (PMI®)

Professional Development Units (PDUs): 0.25

Certification Program Categories:

Ways of WorkingPower SkillsBusiness Acumen

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