“This needs to be built ASAP!”
Well, what does ASAP really mean? Today, tomorrow, or next sprint? What implications does this new requirement have on existing timelines? What scope will need to be reduced to hit this new timeline? Are there workarounds available? Are the requirements fully vetted? What is the end goal?
These are just a few of the questions that spring to mind, and I wager there are a plethora of other branches we could traverse. Ultimately, we as consultants need to dig until we find clarity, or take a step back and map out data driven recommendations for our clients.
I’ve ran into this situation throughout my career and I have found that ‘yes men’ can crush teams by not having these challenging conversations up front.
“Crush teams? What do you mean?”
Managers need to be able to have difficult conversations with clients. If a manager or architect simply agrees with the client’s requests, the client may initially appreciate this behavior, but trust will quickly be lost when the team inevitably misses the mark. Instead, we must always ask clarifying questions and keep an open dialogue. Just saying ‘yes’ shuts down the dialogue, and that’s amateur hour.
I remember having a client who was notoriously difficult to please. He was sharp, mildly arrogant, and wanted things done his way. Think of the Limp Bizkit song – My Way. That was his theme song. I was in a challenging position because I was the new architect on the team, replacing a contractor who had promised the world. I quickly discovered that the previous architect’s analysis, or lack thereof, was about to catch up with the project. To make matters worse, we had a team of junior developers who needed to be trained, and they were all offshore in India.
The previous architect had promised that a financial auditing MVP application could be built in four weeks, whereas I believed it would take twelve weeks, and even that estimate was aggressive. So there I was, the new guy on the team, having uncovered a major gap.
I quickly brought my analysis to my project manager and account manager. They were extremely skeptical, but I was able to win them over with data and examples from my previous experience. This led to a client meeting where I had to play the proverbial “bad guy” and tell the client that Santa wasn’t coming this year.
You could hear a pin drop…
I explained my analysis and emphasized that I was raising these concerns in the best interests of both my team and the client. I had joined the project with the best of intentions, which is why I wanted to share my perspective and be completely transparent about the risks I saw.
The client made it clear that he was extremely disappointed and felt the timeline was inaccurate and padded. In response, I walked him through my projected schedule, including the time required for testing and user acceptance testing (UAT). I explained that compressing the timeline any further would negatively impact quality and that I could not recommend doing so.
The client begrudgingly accepted the revised timeline but made it clear that we were on thin ice and that we had to deliver, come hell or high water.
And you know what? The sky didn’t fall.
I systematically led the team through each sprint, kept the client informed at every stage, and regularly demonstrated our progress. Over time, I became the person who brought clarity and credibility to the project (the one who provided a timeline that was aggressive but achievable). I went on to become a trusted partner and had the honor of demonstrating the completed application to more than 200 stakeholders.
In the end I wound up winning a client excellence award, and it all started by having the gumption to have a difficult conversation.