Bug tracking/forums/etc when client wants to hide me from customers

Question

Sorry for the vague title, if anyone can think of a better one please feel free!

My company is negotiating providing a small dev team (me as PM + 2 or 3 devs) to a client. However he's not the customer, his client is. It's important to him to be providing the software services to the customer, he doesn't like to tell them he has outsourced this (to avoid looking less critical to the project, I theorise).

I want to have a bug-tracking/project-managing tool for my company, which lets clients/customers log bugs and access discussion forums, etc. That's fine as far as letting my client access my tool, but he doesn't want to direct his customers to mycompany.fogbugz.com.

Are there any neat solutions to this, other than him having one tool set up customer-facing and me having my tool, and us manually replicating things between them?

Or, are there any tips how I can persuade my client it's not a problem in the first place?

Answer 1

I think you really have to think about the risk of your employer "hiding" you from the customer. There are many risks there and the customer would likely be better served if you and your employer were open and up-front with them.

Likely your employer is concerned about being "left out" of the project and you managing the entire process. Perhaps he/she is also concerned that you will ruin the relationship or steal the client from them. The best way for you to deal with these concerns is build trust in the relationship. This of course takes time but then start working on your employer to help them understand that open and clear communication is a key pillar of project success. If you provide the end-customer with access to your bug tracking/PM tool as well as your employer then it's a win/win for everyone.

This way the customer gets quicker bug tracker and enhanced visibility. You get more efficient workflow in your process. Your employer will therefore have a happier customer, and happier contractor (you) and therefor a successful, reference-able project.