Company and Subcontractor Management

Company and Subcontractor Management

Susan Fennema, Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, and I discuss the ins and outs of company and subcontractor management in the third video in our 6 video series.  There will be three more videos in the New Year.

 

Today, we talk about communications, on boarding, and helping subcontractors manage their time and obligations:

[embed]https://youtu.be/P_YwvHZzqxg[/embed]

What are the communication requirements for the team?

• Should a sub speak to a client without you or a team member present?


• What internal software tools does your team use that a sub might need to be involved in and how much do you WANT them in it? (Slack, Basecamp Chat, etc)


• Separation between employee-conversations and sub conversations


• Recommend against ever giving out personal cell phone numbers - set up conference calls or use Slack to call out


• Consider setting up a company email address that subs use to communicate to clients or all written communications go through project management tool

How do you bring a sub on board?

• Explain the company structure


• Training vs jumping in


• Senior vs junior devs


• On boarding process (and off boarding process)


• rReviewing work before sending to the client (Q/A)

As a sub, how do I manage working with different clients and keeping time obligations?

• Blocks of time on the calendar


• Confidentiality - especially when working with some of the same people at other shops


• Multiple project management packages? Set them as your startup pages on the web and go to your tasks for that client


• Explain what happens if a client puts something on hold


• Ask for more work if you have a gap


• Understand expectations and COMMUNICATE - over communicate your availability and how you can be contacted

Join Susan and I in the New Year with three new videos:

• Communicating with your Project Manager


• Meeting Expectations 


• Being Responsible as a Developer