In a life of a project, apart from usual aspects viz. cost, time, quality etc etc. customer relationship aspects play important role. Let us look at this aspect slightly differently. Consider following three 'personalities'.
Customer comes with a characteristics of his own. These consist of various aspects like current business, organizational competencies, other problems being faced and personalities of the stake holders themselves.
The Problem to be solved has its own characteristics. They consist of the nature of problem, commercial, functional, technical aspects, level of complexity, R&D content, how long customer is suffering from it, is it futuristic etc.
You, the developer have characteristics of your own. They also consist of your organization, competencies, resources such as time, money, people etc.
Various interactions among these three 'personalities' give rise to multiple situations in a life of a project.
It may always seem that there is inherent grouping among these variables as follows:
Customer seems to be highly knowledgeable about and attached to the
problem. He has built emotional bond with the
problem.
He may want it to be solved the way he thinks. This typically happens when the problem is highly domain specific, customer already has tried out a solution or customer has faced the problem for too long.
Developer slowly starts to get the real depth of the problem as the solution starts to emerge. Multiple facets of the problem start showing up, developer has most of the late revelations resulting in scope creep, schedule slippage and finance erosion. Customer's patience starts to deplete and panic sets in. He may appear to use the problem as a tool to get work done from developer. Customer thinks developer to be mediocre and developer thinks customer to be overly demanding to get more work done in given time and cost. This eventually reduces mutual trust and project goes sour.
In some cases, situation may turn the other way round:
It may appear that developer has joined hands with the problem and cornering the customer. The developer knows much more about the problem and its solutions. This happens in case of a problem being more technical or customer not having development background. It may also happen in cases where customer wants a simple practical solution but developer thinks of a complex, involved solution.
Customer, who initially thought to know a lot about the problem, now has series of late revelations about unknown aspects of the problem. Budget and time pressures increase on customer side. Developer has to create series of explanations on how the problem is more complex than initially thought.
Customer in such cases may look helpless and even lose trust in developer. Developer appears to be using problem as tool to make more money or give reasons to delay the project. This situation also results in loss of mutual trust and risk of project failure.
Both the above situations are not good in a life of a project. The 'problem' personality successfully creates a divide and distrust between customer and developer. Lot of unnecessary communication, documentation flows to and fro without any real value addition. Project finally delays, quality deteriorates or goes off budget. Overall, the 'Problem' personality wins! In both these cases, customer is on the 'other' side with respect to developer!
What is the solution? Apart from process-driven solutions such as Requirement Analysis, POCs, Mock ups, tracking, reviews etc, building right alliance and mutual trust is essential.
Customer and Developer should treat themselves as a single team and attack problem together.
It is always like this at the start of the project! Somewhere down the line, regrouping sets in depending on the nature of the problem at given time.
Failing to form the alliance or weakening it during a course of a project creates hell lot of situations. Both parties may use the problem to hide behind or as a means to prove their points or a tool to extract more from other party. Finally, no body succeeds.
It is extremely important for both parties to create 'and maintain' this alliance in any situation over the complete life of a project. Active efforts must be done during all situations, all phases of project and all levels of organization. Having customer on 'your' side is an important aspect of project success.
With a successful alliance between customer and developer, solving a problem is more of a fun than burden, and it gives satisfaction to both parties too!
The Problem to be solved has its own characteristics. They consist of the nature of problem, commercial, functional, technical aspects, level of complexity, R&D content, how long customer is suffering from it, is it futuristic etc.
You, the developer have characteristics of your own. They also consist of your organization, competencies, resources such as time, money, people etc.
Various interactions among these three 'personalities' give rise to multiple situations in a life of a project.
It may always seem that there is inherent grouping among these variables as follows:
Customer seems to be highly knowledgeable about and attached to the
problem. He has built emotional bond with the
problem.He may want it to be solved the way he thinks. This typically happens when the problem is highly domain specific, customer already has tried out a solution or customer has faced the problem for too long.
Developer slowly starts to get the real depth of the problem as the solution starts to emerge. Multiple facets of the problem start showing up, developer has most of the late revelations resulting in scope creep, schedule slippage and finance erosion. Customer's patience starts to deplete and panic sets in. He may appear to use the problem as a tool to get work done from developer. Customer thinks developer to be mediocre and developer thinks customer to be overly demanding to get more work done in given time and cost. This eventually reduces mutual trust and project goes sour.
In some cases, situation may turn the other way round:
Customer, who initially thought to know a lot about the problem, now has series of late revelations about unknown aspects of the problem. Budget and time pressures increase on customer side. Developer has to create series of explanations on how the problem is more complex than initially thought.
Customer in such cases may look helpless and even lose trust in developer. Developer appears to be using problem as tool to make more money or give reasons to delay the project. This situation also results in loss of mutual trust and risk of project failure.
Both the above situations are not good in a life of a project. The 'problem' personality successfully creates a divide and distrust between customer and developer. Lot of unnecessary communication, documentation flows to and fro without any real value addition. Project finally delays, quality deteriorates or goes off budget. Overall, the 'Problem' personality wins! In both these cases, customer is on the 'other' side with respect to developer!
What is the solution? Apart from process-driven solutions such as Requirement Analysis, POCs, Mock ups, tracking, reviews etc, building right alliance and mutual trust is essential.
It is always like this at the start of the project! Somewhere down the line, regrouping sets in depending on the nature of the problem at given time.
Failing to form the alliance or weakening it during a course of a project creates hell lot of situations. Both parties may use the problem to hide behind or as a means to prove their points or a tool to extract more from other party. Finally, no body succeeds.
It is extremely important for both parties to create 'and maintain' this alliance in any situation over the complete life of a project. Active efforts must be done during all situations, all phases of project and all levels of organization. Having customer on 'your' side is an important aspect of project success.
With a successful alliance between customer and developer, solving a problem is more of a fun than burden, and it gives satisfaction to both parties too!
For developing mutual trust, both sides shall contribute. One side shall shun the "I am the customer" attitude and the other side shall shun the "He is CUSTOMER" attitude. Sadly,most of the times, both sides lack this education. And this problem personality is omnipresent.
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