Factors in the negotiation of the project plan: A recipe for success

Abstract: The inevitable tollgate decision meeting when the project manager is asked to compromise the project plan in order to get a pass and move the project into execution stage. This thesis research studies the reasons and solutions for negotiation difficulties of the contents of the project plan between project managers and steering groups. Tough negotiations on resources commonly exist in many projects and many organizations and, in order to reach an agreement, project managers have no choice but to adjust the figures in the project plan to the demands. However, this adjustment quite often leads to the project not reaching its goal either in cost, time or quality.  Project planning, as a part of project management, is a widely studied subject, but very few researchers have gone into the details of how project managers and steering committees can reach an alignment without unnecessary changes of the project plan at the decision meeting. Therefore, throughout the extensive review of existing literature and a research on the industry through survey and interviews, as outcome of this study, a recipe containing the factors for success on the alignment between the project team and the steering committee is concluded, proven and proposed.