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5 Pitfalls that Prevent us from Delivering what the Customer Really Needs

5/3/2013

11 Comments

 
It’s well known that a large number of projects fail in some way or another. They are either cancelled prematurely, delivered late, cost too much, or they don’t deliver the expected benefits. It’s often this last reason that’s the worst one. Depending on the size of the overrun to budget or schedule, the organisation may be able to absorb it and live with it. But if the project doesn’t deliver the expected benefits, the rationale for undertaking the  project is at stake.  The dis-benefits may even be so significant that the delivery does more harm than good and has to be rolled back.
 
Have a look at the cartoon below. Many of us have seen it before but we still seem to fall into the trap. We struggle to deliver what the customer wants and fail to give them what they really need.
Picture
Many project teams find it challenging to decipher what the customers’ requirements are. And with good reason. Customers and end users aren’t normally trained in conveying what they want, let alone what they need.  More likely, they are trained to do an excellent job on the line in a “business as usual” capacity rather than in a change management capacity. 

But as illustrated in the above cartoon, the biggest challenge is not necessarily understanding and delivering what our customers want but rather what they really need. The goal of any project is to solve the root cause of the customer’s problem in an elegant, cost-effective and usable manner – and to provide a solution which is far superior to what they have today. Our projects have to add the maximum amount of value; something which is only possible if we look beyond our customers’immediate requirements and fully understand their pain points and how they translate to tangible and measurable business benefits. We have to get away from the mentality of delivering to a user specification without validating it or questioning it.

On our road to improving project execution and deliver real value to our clients, we must avoid the following pitfalls:

1. Lack of business awareness
One of the biggest mistakes we make when delivering what our customer’s want rather than need is that we fail to understand the business context of our projects. Project mangers don’t study their client’s core business processes or question the project’s business case. They don’t have a good view of the project’s real objectives and how they can help their customer to grow their business, improve productivity, reduce cost, comply with rules and regulation, improve safety, or whatever the ultimate business benefits are. We need to get better at understanding what our customers and end users are trying to do on a daily basis so that we can help them do it even better.

2. Lack of thoroughness
When working to deliver a product, which genuinely will help our clients to do a better job, we need to understand in detail what the business processes are that we need to emulate or improve. Project teams often make the mistake of not going into enough detail with their analysis. Their descriptions become too generic, contain assumptions or genuinely don’t consider corner cases or end-to-end processes. To identify and map out the client’s needs all situations must to be thought through and analysed. Thorough analysis, of course, requires a good understanding of the business context which brings us back to the first point above.
 
3. Dismissing the need for a business analyst
Some organisations don’t see the value of good quality business analysts and therefore refrain from hiring them. They either expect the project manager or team leads to identify and gather the requirements, or they rely on the customer to deliver them. The problem is that these groups are unlikely to be adequately trained (or have the time) to analyse, understand and put forward the most suited requirements. Good business analysts with in depth domain knowledge should work alongside the project manager and end users to help explore what it is that needs to be delivered so that the clients’ needs can be met and possibly even exceeded. 
 
4. Not consulting the end users 
Leaving requirements gathering solely to the customer and end users can be dangerous, but not consulting them enough is equally dangerous. We sometimes assume that we know more about our clients’ needs than we really do, and that leads us to developing a product in isolation without regularly checking back with them. Gathering requirements and translating them into the best possible solution is a dynamic process which should be explored and refined through a feedback loop of prototyping, demos and walkthroughs with the end users. This feedback is an excellent way of eliciting the user’s real needs. 
 
5. Valuing speed of delivery over quality
When organisations and teams are too focused on delivering a speedy solution at low cost, it can be at the expense of quality. What sometimes happens is that change requests aren’t being allowed, proper analysis and design is not carried out, prototyping and demonstrations are omitted and testing is compromised. The project becomes a tick boxing exercise rather than ensuring that a quality product is being delivered. Elegant solutions which provide the customer with real benefit and ingenious design require time, effort, and the right kind of skill. 

If you liked this post, you may also like:
Top  Tips for Gathering Requirements
Risk  management is how adults manage projects!
10  guidelines for estimating project effort 
How to avoid  the perception of failure


11 Comments
Centrino
5/3/2013 00:14:30

Good morning Susanne,

Good summary !
We indeed tend to forget that the customer (at all levels) are part of the project team (and not 'just'... the customer).

That's why as strategy :

1- the content of the important documents is first uncovered / brainstormed during Workshop sessions

2- I always recommend the customer to read/comment/approve some key documents; like the Project Plan (for your tip 1), and the Requirements analyses (for your tips 2-3-4). When he understands the benefits of this process and the advantages for him (win-win), he is generally more than happy to sign the documents off.

Doing this way, we increase the chances that everybody is on the same page, and hence the chances to deliver what the customer really needed.

Have a nice day !

Reply
Susanne Madsen link
5/3/2013 03:40:19

Thank you for your comment.

Yes, workshops can be a really good way of working through requirements with our customer. I also agree that it's essential to get their approval on key documents - but ideally we want more than just sign-offs. We want them to be joint owners.

Warm wishes,
Susanne

Reply
jason
5/3/2013 03:57:53

Fascinating insight. I recognise the diagram only too well. biggest issue and root cause for me is client or organisational capability to perform mature programme and project mngt particularly at initiation. . I work for consultancy and I've worked in say 6 large different accounts in recent years. All the same lack of good role models of leadership.

Reply
Vicki James link
8/3/2013 20:56:52

Jason - you hit the nail on the head. The root cause of many project challenges begin with the organization; structure and support.

Reply
Ben Hughes link
5/3/2013 11:54:32

The approach I follow is similar - with a different twang. Firstly:

How can we meet or exceed the expectations of the customer or service user? There are often self-applied constraints that say "we must do this online" or "we must use this framework". These are organisational constraints - not something the customer or service user needs to be exposed to.

Business analysts are useful in understanding this - but the most useful person is the customer or service user.

Secondly:

How can I test this? That is how can I measure that what I am doing is meeting or exceeding the expectations of the customer of service user?

In my experience, answering these two fundamentals - early - and aggressively managing the constraints that stop you from doing these things - leads to a successful and fruitful outcome. And by doing so, quality becomes the essence of everything you do.

Reply
Susanne Madsen link
5/3/2013 12:39:34

Thank you for your comments Ben.

Your points are very valid. Consistently asking how we can exceed expectations and also setting specific and measurable acceptance criteria so that we can verify the outcome are absolutely key.

Thanks for sharing!

Susanne

Reply
Vicki James link
8/3/2013 20:54:14

Great post Susanne. I'm going to put my Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) hat on for this comment.

#3 - the value of a good business analysts is often missed in projects. Just as 10-20 years ago in IT management thought a developer could manage a project, today they will use any warm body to fill the business analyst need. I worked in an organization that used prior users as business analysts, but they lacked some key attributes and acted more as scribes for users "wants".

Project managers filling this role can have three major problems.

1) Capacity - Project Management is a full time role in many projects. Having the project manager fulfill both roles is a further strain on capacity and focus.
2) Skillset - While many skills do overlap, a good business analyst will have a different toolbox at her disposal for better business analysis and better business analysis artifacts. This includes modeling and data analysis that is far removed from the PM needs.
3) Checks and balances - having different people represent the project vs the business puts checks and balances in place to facilitate decisions that are carefully weighed against each other.

Having a great BA on the project will address points 1, 2 and 4 with the checks and balances facilitating 5 of the points above.

PMs do, and are capable, of fulfilling both roles. We should want the support of a great business analysis to help us deliver projects that delivery business value.

The IIBA is a great place to start to better understand business analysis as a profession. They can be found on the web at iiba.org, or more specifically, the UK Chapter at uk.iiba.org.

See also my post on the PM vs the BA at http://project-pro.us/2012/06/04/pm-vs-ba/. I look forward to your comments.

Reply
Susanne Madsen link
9/3/2013 02:24:25

Thank you for your insights Vicki. It's nice to have someone advocate great BA's as it's far from always recognised in the market place. Also thanks for the link to your excellent post!

Susanne

Reply
Cert IV Training and Assessment link
21/4/2013 22:00:43

I love the graphic - you couldn't show it any cleared with that (I'll have to put it in my next blog on PGM mistakes!).

Reply
Fashion Designing Institute in Jaipur link
7/9/2013 02:29:48

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Lan Tran
9/12/2014 18:03:23

Thank so much. This post really cool

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