Stajt kien konsulent għal ħafna snin u issa bħala kwalunkwe konsulent b'esperjenza jaf, good communication is one of the key pillars to the successful delivery of a project. Huwa daqshekk ovvja, it’s really almost boring to talk about. This isn’t a post about generic communication. Minflok, Jien bil-miktub dwar il-ġenb jiskuraw ta 'komunikazzjoni — komunikazzjoni aħbar ħażina.

Huwa ovvju li l-għoti aħbar tajba għall-klijent isir il-ħin kollu, as often as possible. Who doesn’t want to give good news? Who doesn’t like to hear good news?

Fuq in-naħa flip, bad news is no fun at all. I have always struggled with this. In the earlier days of my career, Nixtieq taf xi ħaġa kienet awry ma 'proġett u minflok javżak-klijent, 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 li 80 ġimgħat siegħa?

X'inhi l-aħjar mod biex jimmaniġġaw aħbar ħażina? 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 (probabbilment se), there may be incriminations and accusations and hurt feelings. Iżda, meta emozzjonijiet jibred off, there’s still six weeks left on the project. Six weeks is a good chunk of time. There’s time to adjust plans, bidla iskedi, jiksbu l-ballun rolling fuq estensjonijiet tal-baġit (Xorti tajba!) and just generally come to grips with the "facts on the ground" and devise a new plan that still results in a successful project.

Kawża fil-punt: Jien jaħdmu fuq proġett ikkaratterizzat minn:

• T&E budget with a capped "Not to exceed" ammont ta 'dollari.
• A "best efforts will be made" wegħda li jagħti X, Y Z u sa tmiem proġett.
• Lack of promised key resources on the client side. These resources were not withheld on purpose, nor for any "bad" raġuni, imma dawn kienu miżmuma.
• A dawning realization as the project passed the half-way point that we were not going to be able to deliver "Z" (prinċipalment għaliex ir-riżorsi mwiegħda kinux attwalment disponibbli).
• Regular status reports and "CYA" dokumentazzjoni li appoġġjata us (it-tim konsultazzjoni) up.
• Tim implimentazzjoni sewwa maħdumin mal-membri mfassla mill-organizzazzjoni konsultazzjoni (kumpanija tiegħi) u l-klijent.
• Tim ta 'ġestjoni Distanti, in both a metaphorical and physical sense. The management team was focused on another large enterprise project and due to space constraints, it-tim implimentazzjoni ġie miżmuma f'bini separat fuq il-kampus, down a hill and relatively far way from "civilization".

B'madwar sitt ġimgħat tax-xellug fuq il-baġit tal-proġett, aħna (it-tim implimentazzjoni) 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" li jagħti Z u anki jekk kellna ġustifikazzjoni kbira għaliex intilfet l-kunsinna … il-bottom line huwa li ma kienet qed tfittex tajba — ma konniex se jagħti Z fil-forma ta 'kwalità li jagħmel xi ħadd kburi.

Jagħrfu din, aħna marru għall-ġestjoni u qaltilhom li l-baġit tal-proġett se jiġi kkunsmat minn ċerta data u li konna fl-inkwiet mal Z.

A firestorm mini faqqa matul il-jiem li ġejjin.

Jum 1: Tim ta 'Ġestjoni sejħiet fil-persunal tagħha għal laqgħa speċjali (aħna, l-konsulenti ma jkunux mistiedna). 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 "Stockholm Syndrome" huwa * attwalment użati *, but you get the picture. We’re a tight-knit group, wara kollox, u l-istaff ilha taħdem magħna konsulenti jum fi u barra għal diversi xhur issa.

Jum 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: iskeda laqgħa mat-tim implimentazzjoni sħiħa (inklużi konsulenti).

Jum 5: Tim sħiħ jissodisfa, 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.

Jekk kellna stenniet sa biss tliet ġimgħat baqgħu, jew saħansitra agħar, ġimgħa jew ġimgħatejn, it would have been much different. Instead of a constructive meeting to re-align the project, aħna kienu ġbid rapporti ta 'status, parsing the contract and reviewing old emails to justify this or that decision. We would have "won" but is it really "winning" f'dan il-każ?

Allura, jekk inti għandek tagħti aħbar ħażina, give it early. Bad news given late isn’t just bad, huwa horrible.