What Clients Struggle Most With

I have a varied client base in terms of industry, organisation size and configuration (NGOs, PBOs and for-profits). You will not be surprised to hear that a few similar issues come up repeatedly in my engagements. Here is a list of some of the most common problems my clients have had when dealing with software systems.

1. Too far down the wrong path

The sunk cost fallacy regularly causes clients to spend large amounts of time and money on a wrongly configured project. Wrong partner, wrong approach, wrong tech, wrong product entirely. By the time the mistake fully sets in, accompanied by a special kind of dread, they are desperate and often low on both time and funds. The natural reaction is to search for a quick fix. Get things working now and kick the can down the road until they can regroup, fix issues properly when things have “settled”. We try hard to accommodate and plan a route to a better place, but often parts of a project cannot be salvaged.

2. What lies beneath

Many clients have lack of understanding of the complexity, at a detail level, involved with a product or system they want to create. They lack credible research, or access to people who have gone through something similar in the recent past. Also they don’t consider edge cases and exceptions, which are the bane of organisational processes. It can also happen that they start building something before they have a clear idea of what it is. These shortcomings ultimately boil down to this: Their expectations are going to very difficult to meet. Speaking the truth in this situation is a tricky business, especially when a client is surrounded by service providers who say what is most convenient.

3. Your win is not our win

Projects can be deeply personal to staff in an organisation, and stakeholders may have personal objectives relating to advancement, financial rewards, recognition and career satisfaction. These can be problematic as they may not be the same as the overall project objectives. This sounds quite simple when stated, but it is surprising how often project / product owners do not attempt to surface and manage personal goals within the context of a project. Sometimes they don’t even consider this as something that is part of their responsibility, like it is common sense, and each individual should be able to manage this on their own. In practice what often happens that shared objectives lose their coherence when mistakes are made, stress levels are high and things are going wrong. This happens on almost every project, so proactive management is key.

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