[thelist] Client Updates to SSI .inc file
Luther, Ron
ron.luther at hp.com
Thu Jul 29 08:28:59 CDT 2004
Andrew noted:
>>Are your clients experts in your filed!! You are the expert it is your
>>job to provide the solution that works and the db solution works... End
>>of.
Hi Andrew!
Just had to jump in here for a minute. I think you'll find that you have
to take things on an 'individual case basis'.
There *are* clients that see you as an 'order taker' who merely exists
as the lowest cost provider to meet the exact letter of their carefully
written specifications. (They can be pretty easy to spot - the worst ones
will hand you a thick document in your first meeting, signed off by
four levels of their management, containing functional flow diagrams
and screenshot mockups ... Completely without regard for whether any of
the critical data elements they are depending on actually exist or not!
They are not interested in negotiating. All they want are your timeline
commit dates.)
;-(
[Yeah, I hate dealing with those people too! For me (and I think for
a lot of other folks here) those kinds of projects are very painful
and rarely 'successful'. {Mainly because any change now becomes an
'error' made by your client that has to pass through change management
and management review ... you don't win a lot of points making the
client look bad to their management. Negotiation also becomes a lot
more formal.} But those folks definitely *are* out there.]
I *much* prefer the clients who allow you to take on a consultative role.
The ones who allow you make suggestions and work with them to build
something that will actually be useful and add value. That can be fun.
[I'll add a small note here to the effect that the more you know about
their business and what they do ... the more you *are* an 'expert' in
_their_ field ... the better you will be able to make valuable
suggestions.]
I agree that the clients who actually _know_ what they want are
incredibly rare. I think I might have had ... uh, two ... maybe?
I find that pretty much all of my clients, at least initially, actually
ask for 'what they think they can get' ... which generally falls far short
of 'what they actually want or need'. Because of that, I think (in addition
to the technical skills to _do_ the work) it's very important for us to
have the people skills and the consultative skills to be able to draw out
what the client actually needs. Once that's done the rest is just
implementation.
I'm deliberately stressing the people skills here because they are
incredibly important for 'success'. You can have a brilliant suggestion
to improve the project, but if you pout and shout, try to cram it down
their throats, or come across with a prima donna attitude that your
head is much too big for your shoulders ... (a) it ain't gonna happen
... and (b) you ain't gonna get return or word of mouth business from
that client.
Sometimes it can be really tough sitting in a meeting with a client,
staring at a hole in the design big enough to fly a Concorde through
- or a gap in the functionality that Ray Charles could see, and
trying to fake 'innocence' ... asking leading questions to try to
get them to see the hole first so you can 'brainstorm' them into the
solution you want to implement. But sometimes that is the 'right'
thing to do. [Granted, shaking some sense into them might _seem_ quite
tempting, and possibly even quite satisfying ... but it _is_ generally
frowned upon in our industry.] If done well, 'leading the client' can
go a long way to building your credibility, rep, career, and relationship
with the client ... and hey, it's easier and cheaper to _keep_ existing
business than to drum up new business, right?
Regards,
RonL.
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