Ja sam bio konzultant za mnogo godina i sada, kao svaki iskusni konzultant zna, good communication is one of the key pillars to the successful delivery of a project. To je tako očito, it’s really almost boring to talk about. This isn’t a post about generic communication. Umjesto toga, Pišem o tamnijoj strani komunikacije — komuniciranja loših vijesti.

To ide bez rekavši da daje dobre vijesti za klijenta obavlja se cijelo vrijeme, as often as possible. Who doesn’t want to give good news? Who doesn’t like to hear good news?

Na drugoj strani, bad news is no fun at all. I have always struggled with this. In the earlier days of my career, Ja bih znao da nešto nije naopako s projektom, a umjesto reći klijentu, I would work longer hours to try and solve the problem. I would enjoin my team to work harder. It’s a natural enough impulse to think that a super-human effort can save the day. Some times this works, some times it does not. Even when it "works" it’s often a mixed bag. Is the quality of the deliverable really up to spec when key parts have been developed over several 60 na 80 sat tjedana?

Koji je najbolji način da se nositi loše vijesti? The answer is: tell it early. Don’t wait until one week before the project budget will be consumed. If you know six weeks out that there simply isn’t enough time to deliver some bit of promised functionality, tell the client right then and there. The client may get upset (Vjerojatno hoće), there may be incriminations and accusations and hurt feelings. Ali, kad emocije ohladiti, there’s still six weeks left on the project. Six weeks is a good chunk of time. There’s time to adjust plans, promijeniti raspored, dobili loptu valjanje na proračunske nastavcima (sretno!) and just generally come to grips with the "facts on the ground" and devise a new plan that still results in a successful project.

Slučaj u točki: Radim na projektu karakterizira:

• T&E budget with a capped "Not to exceed" dolar iznos.
• A "best efforts will be made" Obećanje da dostavi X, Y i Z do kraja projekta.
• Lack of promised key resources on the client side. These resources were not withheld on purpose, nor for any "bad" razlog, ali oni su zadržana.
• A dawning realization as the project passed the half-way point that we were not going to be able to deliver "Z" (uglavnom zbog obećana sredstva zapravo nisu dostupni).
• Regular status reports and "CYA" Dokumentacija koja nas podlogom (savjetovanje tim) up.
• Skopčana provedba ekipa s članovima izvučeni iz konzultantske organizacije (moja tvrtka) i klijent.
• Distant upravljanje tim, in both a metaphorical and physical sense. The management team was focused on another large enterprise project and due to space constraints, Provedba momčad bila smještena u zasebnoj zgradi na kampusu, down a hill and relatively far way from "civilization".

S otprilike šest tjedna ostalo na projektnom proračunu, mi (Provedba momčadi) knew that we were trouble. The contract said that we needed to deliver "Z". Even though the project is time & materials and even though we only promised "best efforts" dostaviti Z, a iako smo imali veliku opravdanje za nestale dostavu … Dno crta je da on nije izgleda dobro — da nećemo isporučiti Z u obliku kvalitetu koja bi netko ponosan.

Prepoznajući to, otišli smo na upravljanje i rekao im da je proračun projekta bi se konzumira u određenom roku i da smo bili u nevolji s Z.

Mini FireStorm izbio tijekom sljedećih nekoliko dana.

Dan 1: Uprava kluba poziva u svojoj osoblja za poseban sastanak (mi, konzultanti nisu pozvani). Contracts are printed and handed out to everyone and a line-by-line review ensues. Management puts the staff members on the defensive. I don’t think the phrase "Stockholmski sindrom" je * zapravo * koristiti, ali ćete dobiti sliku. We’re a tight-knit group, uostalom, a osoblje je radio s nama konzultanti dan in i out za nekoliko mjeseci.

Dan 2: Management calls another staff meeting. They feel a little better. They want options and ideas for moving forward. They realize there’s still six weeks remaining in the current project budget, which is still a decent bit of time. One of the action items: zakazati sastanak s puna provedba tim (uključujući i konzultanti).

Dan 5: Cijeli tim sastaje, constructive meeting ensues and a new achievable plan put into place. Even better, we’ve already begun discussing phase two and the client invites us to prepare proposals for that phase immediately.

Ako smo čekali dok samo tri tjedna ostala, ili još gore, jedan ili dva tjedna, it would have been much different. Instead of a constructive meeting to re-align the project, mi bi bili čupanje izvješća o stanju, parsing the contract and reviewing old emails to justify this or that decision. We would have "won" but is it really "winning" u ovom slučaju?

Tako, ako imate dati loše vijesti, give it early. Bad news given late isn’t just bad, to je strašno.