3. Document the right solution
Once you’ve verified or rewritten your customer’s detailed requirements, you can then document the right solution and the right technology selection for the implementation based on those now very complete and detailed requirements. Revisit and revise the statement of work as necessary, and build a functional design document for your customer and for your project team to lay the groundwork for the design and development phases of the project.
Good requirements are everything, and too many times the customer is coming to the table with a symptom, not the real problem. If the project manager and team don't dive into the real requirements, the solution they build will not meet end-user needs and will ultimately be deemed a failure, even if what they built was what the sponsor requested. Seek out SMEs and meet the end-user needs. The only way to ensure that you do that is to plan, plan, plan with the customer and ask the right questions up front. Assume there’s more than meets the eye, and that will help keep you out of trouble—at least most of the time.
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About the author
Brad Egeland is an IT, project management, and business strategy consultant and author with more than twenty-five years of software development, management, and project management experience leading business and IT initiatives in nearly every industry imaginable. He works with organizations of all sizes from startups to Fortune 500 leaders and has overseen the creation and execution of multiple PMOs. Brad is married, a father of nine, and lives in Las Vegas, NV. He can be reached at brad@bradegeland.com or you can visit his website at www.bradegeland.com.
