The Pursuit Power Half Hour
Managing Unpredictability in Projects by Closing the Scope-to-Delivery Gap
Managing Unpredictability in Projects by Closing the Scope-to-Delivery Gap
Project predictability becomes difficult to maintain when scoping, pricing, resource planning, and delivery operate in disconnected systems. Projects can begin with healthy margins and strong plans, yet become less profitable as requirements, staffing needs, and delivery effort change.
In this Pursuit Power Half Hour session, Banoo Behboodi from Kantata and Anish Udayakumar from Provus discuss how professional services firms can better connect what was sold with what is actually delivered. The conversation explores ways to improve estimation, identify margin risk earlier, and connect resource and revenue forecasting.
Why Do Professional Services Projects Become Unpredictable?
Project unpredictability often begins with assumptions made during scoping and estimation. When scope definitions are inconsistent or estimates do not reflect actual delivery experience, the original plan may underestimate the effort and resources required.
Banoo and Anish explore why pricing and scoping assumptions need to remain connected to delivery data. They discuss how disconnected tools and manual processes make it harder to recognize changes and coordinate decisions across sales, delivery, operations, and finance.
How Can Firms Reduce the Gap Between Scoping and Delivery?
Closing the scope-to-delivery gap requires a feedback loop between the quoting process and project execution.
Comparing original estimates with actual project performance helps teams understand where assumptions held up and where they fell short. Those insights can inform future scope definitions, estimates, and pricing decisions while helping teams recognize scope creep and margin risk during delivery.
The session examines how connected quoting and professional services automation (PSA) systems can support that feedback loop and reduce manual handoffs.
Why Should Resource Planning Begin During Quoting?
Resource availability, capacity, and skills affect whether a project can be delivered within its proposed timeline and budget. Considering these factors earlier helps teams develop plans that reflect the people needed to complete the work.
The conversation explores how resource forecasting and revenue forecasting work together, along with the role of cross-training in preparing teams for future project needs.
Where Should Firms Start When Connecting Sales and Delivery?
Professional services leaders can begin by examining how information moves between scoping, quoting, resource planning, and execution.
The session explores the limitations of disconnected spreadsheets and point solutions, and how shared data and connected workflows can improve collaboration. Keeping commercial assumptions visible as work moves into delivery gives teams a stronger foundation for monitoring project performance.
Watch the Kantata + Provus Integration Demo
The session concludes with Vicki Sanderson from Kantata demonstrating how a Provus quote connects with Kantata to support the handoff from sales to project delivery.
See how teams can:
- Create a Kantata project directly from a Provus quote.
- Transfer quote information into the Kantata project structure.
- Carry project value and estimated hours into delivery.
- Transfer margin information from the quote.
- Bring resource requirements into the project.
- Reduce manual recreation of information during the sales-to-delivery handoff.
The demonstration shows how scoping, resourcing, and forecasting information can flow into Kantata before project execution begins.
Speakers
- Banoo Behboodi — Vice President, Success Engineering, Kantata
- Anish Udayakumar — Senior Vice President of Product Management and Customer Experience, Provus
- Vicki Sanderson — Senior Principal Solution Engineering, Kantata
Explore Kantata’s professional services automation software to learn more about connecting project delivery, resourcing, forecasting, and financial performance.