I'm sure other PMs have run into this issue, which is explaining the benefit of a PM to a client. Here's a typical question I hear: "Why am I paying extra for someone who is not involved in the analysis, design, development or support of my project?"

I've come up with a few responses to this:

a. You need someone to make sure each of the project's phases adhere to a certain level of quality

b. You need to talk to someone who is aware of all the phases and of the project's scope (as opposed to talking to 5-6 different people with different communication styes)

c. The PM ensures that the project is delivered on time.

d. Not client-facing responses: a PM allows other team members to focus on their work. The person also manages the budget and scope (what client wouldn't mind a project going out of scope and not having to pay for it?).

I found an excellent and related thread here: What value do project managers provide a software development team?

However, I'm looking to see how other PMs have dealt with this from an external client facing perspective, i.e. how do you relay the benefits to a client directly?

Note: I'd like to add that this hasn't been a problem for larger, complicated projects. But when the stakeholders are few (1 to 2) and the budget isn't that large, this seems to come up more often

I'm sure other PMs have run into this issue, which is explaining the benefit of a PM to a client. Here's a typical question I hear: "Why am I paying extra for someone who is not involved in the analysis, design, development or support of my project?"

I've come up with a few responses to this:

a. You need someone to make sure each of the project's phases adhere to a certain level of quality

b. You need to talk to someone who is aware of all the phases and of the project's scope (as opposed to talking to 5-6 different people with different communication styes)

c. The PM ensures that the project is delivered on time.

d. Not client-facing responses: a PM allows other team members to focus on their work. The person also manages the budget and scope (what client wouldn't mind a project going out of scope and not having to pay for it?).

I found an excellent and related thread here: What value do project managers provide a software development team?

However, I'm looking to see how other PMs have dealt with this from an external client facing perspective, i.e. how do you relay the benefits to a client directly?

Note: I'd like to add that this hasn't been a problem for larger, complicated projects. But when the stakeholders are few (1 to 2) and the budget isn't that large, this seems to come up more often