[thelist] Client Updates to SSI .inc file

[Luther, Ron]

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.