10.30 Building Confidence in the Plan and Selling It Internally

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Once the plan has had the reality check from the SPMO and both the SPMO and the Project Manager are comfortable with it, it should be presented to the Executive Stakeholder and other members of the Executive Team. This presentation is a critical step in gaining internal support and provides a sense of control to the executive management team as well as satisfaction on their part that you have done your job correctly. Senior executives often have a way of injecting their criticisms into the plan during these types of reviews. The best advice I can give for dealing with that situation is to take the criticism and state that you will look into the matter and see what impact it will have on the overall plan. After the meeting, review all of the input, go over it with the SPMO, and jointly make the decision as to whether the comment merits change or not. This way, you have the SPMO backing you up on the outcome of the matter. Once this review process has been completed, the executives should be encouraged to put a positive spin on the project and inform their respective staffs of the plan and how it will benefit the organization.

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