Sunday, November 02, 2003


Source: Steve Eichert

I believe the success or failure of a company can be tied directly to whether or not they truly put their customers first.  There are certain methodologies that lend themselves more towards pleasing the customer then others.  For most of my career I've worked with clients using a fixed bid waterfall process.  The engagement has been broken down into discrete phases that allowed us, the service provider, to ensure we stayed within budget and delivered what the client paid for.  Over the years I've worked with some clients that have been extremely pleased with the work we've done and then others that have been some where in between.  They liked us, our skills, and our ability to solve their problem but seemed to have some reservations about future projects.  I often marvel at how well we've done using the waterfall methodology.  I think much of this can be attributed to the overall skill and talent of the individuals I’ve worked with.

Over the last several months I've thought a lot about our clients.  What is it that they want?  What will make them happy?  What can we do to ensure they get the most out of any engagement with us?

As I sit and think about each of these questions I always come back to one thing.  If we put them first, above all else, above budgets, timelines, formal processes, and everything else we can ensure their happiness.

Now the problem.

It's hard to keep the client first using a fixed bid waterfall methodology.  The fixed bid portion forces you to always think about how close you are to the estimates, forces you to (sometimes) sacrifice quality to ensure everything is finished within budget.  It sucks.  We need to do better.  We need to kick butt for our clients.  We need to delight them.  We need them to love us.  We need something else.

Although there is no silver bullet I think the philosophies behind Agile methodologies allows the client to get much more out of us.  We can focus on them.  We can focus on their needs, wants, and desires.  We can come closer to the ideal world that allows us to kick butt and take names for them. 

[Steve Eichert]
12:38:46 PM    trackback []     Articulate []