There are any number of blogs, articles, and other sites where you can find out how one thing compares to another. What I don’t see very often is comparison of things to a base list of requirements.
The big thing right now is e-reader comparison, will the iPad kill the Kindle? Is the Kobo reader the best thing since the printing press, should I buy the Sony reader. I have read a lot of these comparisons because I am an e-publisher in my other life. But what I notice when I come to use these comparisons to decide whether I want to buy a device, there are few if any comparisons to my requirements.
This could be because it’s hard for the person posting the comparison to know what I want – my requirements. I think, though that they could come up with a preliminary list. Some do, by default they compare what they think is important. Just like during the requirements gathering stage of a project. The Business Analyst goes in to the client meeting with a base idea of what they might want.
Do you complete a project based on that first cut of requirements? I hope the answer is no. By assuming you know what the client wants, you are guaranteed to have scope issues, stakeholder and client issues, and lots of workarounds.
In a project environment, you get to speak to the client. Take full advantage of that. Get their ideas, needs and wants on the table – at the start, and during the project. I think it’s important to remember that scope change is not a failure of the project, scope change properly managed will improve the client relationship and the success of the project. Scope creep is usually either due to poorly collected requirements, or to poor scope management.
And to those of you out in the Internet who are doing comparisons, please continue. You may not be measuring the comparison against my requirements, but you are doing a great job.
Success in your projects this week.
Perry
