Beginner's Guide

A customer is always right. If not, we just have a different opinion on the subject… That is a good
example of what synchronization of Findings is all about.
DEADLINE FIRST FLEX SCOPE
Projects tend to go over the deadline. Why? Are you such a crappy planner, do you like to disappoint
people? Of course not. Do you end up with a buggy result to has to be debugged, do you accept new
requirements and changed resources while you are developing? Yes, you do. Do you have a problem
stopping development efforts and starting a thorough test? Do you deliver half-baked systems just to
"keep the customer happy"? You most probably do. And you should stop this behavior from this moment
on.
"Deadline first" means: no matter what, we deliver on time. Read that sentence again: we deliver on
time.
40 years of ICT has done us no good in some perspectives. It's perfectly accepted that we don't
deliver on time. Even worse: it's accepted that more than 50% of the larger ICT projects world wide are
a sheer failure. And we accept that they tend to be twice as expensive in the end than quoted upfront.
Suppose your grocery store would say "no milk today" after you ordered it by phone yesterday.
Suppose your bakery would raise their prices from one day to the other by 100% or 200%. What would
you say if the constructor of your house that just collapsed sends you the last invoice for "work done to
your house"?
Customers in ICT just walk off and mumble their disdain. They go and start another ICT project.
And we suppliers? We get away with nonperformance! We don't deliver on time, we don't stick to
promises and we deliver systems that will not be used (long enough). Sometimes a customer sues us. But
what the hack: you can't get blood from a stone. In many cases, angry customers don't pay the last
installment or the main installment (depends on how stupid we were). But that's about it. Easy walk in
the park. We continue to next project and act more or less the same…
STOP IT!
Deliver on time, no matter what, no excuses, but deliver!
HOW TO DELIVER ON TIME
I will now go into detail about how it's done and the positive effects of this behavior for all parties
involved, including your customers.
How do you deliver on time?
Most importantly by flexing the scope.
Joomla! 2.5 - Beginner’s Guide
Monday, 30 January 2012! Page 250