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Hind sight is 20/20 here but I have a few things to say cause I also have a client like this right now.
Always leave a paper trail of what was agreed upon. If anything changes drastically like you are saying, always reference back to what “we” all agreed upon. These are touch conversations but it helps align clients on do’s and donts.
Next, I would come out with an estimated cost for there requests. Changing calculations and data sources is not simple and is a project by itself sometimes. Send them the estimate based on the ask and see how they react. Obviously make sure your director or managing partner is on board.
That’s what I have learned in my experience but would love to know how other hedge against this, especially when a project has already begun. Hope this was helpful and good luck.
This is the right answer!
Haha EVERYTIME AMIRITE? Idk why there is such a hilarious amount of scope creepy on every KPI engagement but just seems to be par for the course. Always escalate but know that 7 times out of ten the partner will make you do what the client wants. Fingers crossed for 3/10!
But OP, why can’t they have mental problem AND be illiterate!
Mentor
Document and elevate to ppmd.
Switch projects
Pray
Mentor
Explain neutrally what the impact would be and then, yes, get your leadership involved.
Document everything as decisions get made. Then try to streamline with client, else elevate to PMD or project leadership
Table it for next release
“This new update is a blocker. We can’t go live without this added.”
Sounds like my project
Same. Current project and the 2 analytics development projects before. It is so disappointing how frequently this happens, usually with a tenured product owner who is afraid that the change will cost them their position. I really feel for OP.
Life Pro Tip: For reasons discussed throughout this entire thread, NEVER agree to fixed price projects of this type. Clients never agree on final scope unless extra time means extra fees. When that happens they magically agree immediately on reporting/dashboard scope.
How do we manage these with clients when we can’t manage them with our own people? Lose so much time with this just with the other Accenture teams on the same project.
Seems the best solution is going for a stronger paper trail and constantly referring to it. However, it has been consistently disregarded for the whole engagement, so I am not terribly optimistic about it. Any other suggestions would be appreciated, but I guess the end of the day, as consultants, we are just puny subjects to their volatile decisions and thought process.
There should be assumptions in your SOW that could help you here, things as specific as ‘KPI definitions that change after clients give sign off on data sources will require adjustments to timeline, resourcing, and cost.’
No paper trail stronger than one that is legally binding.
Document as you go and get regular sign offs. If they agreed to it last week and now want to change it, a change request is probably in order.
Client is usually made right (whether we like it or not). The only exception is if your organization doesn't care about the client or the project and is willing to drop them or has leverage over them (e.g., strong relationship over their leadership or other projects in their portfolio). I've been in this situation probably 10 times over the past few years. The client I have is a major revenue driver and we can't drop them. The real answer would be sell them the additional work (or services to support that work), but in reality that usually isn't an option unless you've got a large program with the client, deep pockets, and other higher-level client relationships. Say you have a clear SOW and this violates it in some minor way. If that relationship is important to your organization will you risk millions of dollars of continued work for some additional time? Depends. Someone in your leadership will decide.
That brings up the question of too many clients trying to reinvent the wheel when it is not needed. Somewhere down the road additional work will be needed to be done because of that decision by a client, which, of course, was wrong to begin with. I recently had a large project with a client where the exact thing happened. Hours upon hours of data clean-up all based on one bone-headed decision by a partner.
Gotta say SAFe helps. New requirement? Points estimation, prioritization establishment for new release schedule.
If the client persists put in a 5000 point spike to figure out how to change relativity and time-travel back to reprioritize the original task and deliver on time... remind them that they will own the technology once the story is completed.
I guess you only have to be patient and present the client with the bill for the new requirements. I often see (from the company perspective) that the more time they have before the golive the more adjustments they make to a project that doesn’t require any other input 😌
It’s the job of the designated Engagement Manager/project manager to predefine a timeline for the project. A deviation from that should incurr additional fees.
I frame it positively on what progress we’ve made then identify which reqs are still TBC by their respective dates and communicate the project delays/impact.
If that doesn’t work, gotta escalate to leadership, steering committee, etc.