What to expect
At times, you find yourself faced with a situation wherein you need to manage a project in an organization that by nature does not follow a rigid process. As you are a Consultant, the Director of the organization gets the status of the project from your SME (Subject Matter Expert) who is an employee of the organization. This is a very difficult situation to be in. There will be commitments made at your back and certain deadlines decided without your knowledge. Sometimes you feel you are a dummy project manager. Also, you are in a situation wherein the employees and the higher management are not keen to complete the project due to fear of job loss once the project is completed. You are brought in as a consulting PM to put a project back on track, which is in a bad shape. You are new to the organization’s culture, its people, and the project team. You see some individuals in the project who are the higher management’s favorites and have an upper hand being in the organization for a long time. They know that you have no real powers and you are only being used for the success of the project. Besides, you will not get credit for the success of the project, as certain team members who are employees of the organization will claim it.

How to handle the situation
The first point a consulting project manager has to realize is that the current situation is not his or her fault and there is a limitation to his or her project management execution powers. In this situation, the project manager should maintain his or her composure and try to initiate a process that would be meaningful to the project and the organization. The project manager should expect daily directions from the SME who is his subordinate in the project. He should be fully aware that he is in a weird situation. The project manager should know who the upper management’s favorites are in the project team and try to get along well with these individuals and try to be buddies with them. He should understand the culture of the organization, the business need for the project, and its key stakeholders.
The project manager should construct a project plan in consultation with the higher management and the team members and lay down a project timeline. The project
manager should demonstrate the use of a process for:

* Emphasizing the need to document project requirements
* Recording minutes of meetings at appropriate times