Friday, April 24, 2009

Managing Expectations

Selecting and beginning a project is always complicated - no matter how well you plan, something will (probably) go wrong. Sometimes, and I'm guilty of this myself, it's easy to get caught up in how great things will be at the end of the project, or once things get up and running. Managing expectations, especially preparing for the worst in the beginning (for me during the transition period) is important.

To start with, I've learned to help keep expectations realistic, it's important to have a thorough conceptualization process that uses tools like decision-making trees to help the customer understand that costs associated with feasibility and requirements studies aren’t necessarily part of the project scope and budget. This work needs to be done before the project to determine what a realistic scope will be, and if it’s even possible to solve the problem while creating value. This should be done in a separate selection process - and I know it sounds intuitive, but I'm surprised by how many examples I've seen where this up-front work somehow gets thrown into the planning stage of the project.

The customer also has to understand that there may be times were a no-go decision is made with “sunk” costs that can’t be recouped. These types of expenses need to be budgeted at the business-level, so that they don’t impair project performance. This basic form of expectations management helps ensure the project team isn’t overloading the initial stages of the project at the expense of execution, and helps the customer focus on the real business need and appropriate solution before the projects are initiated – so we know the deliverable will be acceptable.

Finally, and this is from personal experience, sometimes the transition from where they are to where they'll be (i.e. what you're going to accomplish with the project) is going to have some rough patches. As I mentioned previously, it's easy to get caught up talking about how great things will be when you're done. But to launch into a project without discussing the potential problems (which could be part of a formal risk management plan) is setting the expectation for your client that nothing will go wrong. So when it does, they are completely unprepared and the relationship can quickly turn adversarial.

By managing your stakeholders up-front, and focusing on potential problems and risks, you create realistic expectations and prepare them for the worst. If the project still makes sense, even if some things go wrong, then it's probably something worth doing. Now that you've sort of "under-promised," and the client is not expecting miracles or nothing but blue skies, you've set a solid foundation for the project to progress. By communicating and remaining practical from the start, you also build a rapport with the clients that will be invaluable in the future should problems occur. You'll have their confidence, because they'll know you're working with them, and that they can trust you.

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