Deliverables vs. Delivering

I remember years ago during football season watching a commercial produced by IBM. This guy was on a beach with a bunch of washed up monitors and I think some other pieces of equipment. I recall his basic message was that you could produce the greatest technology in the world – but if it doesn't add business value - then it’s basically “junk.”

It’s interesting how sometimes on our projects we become rigidly associated with certain SDLC deliverables. From a project management standpoint, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since it helps provide a clear means of tracking progress. But if we’re not careful, what can happen is that we become so focused on our deliverables that sometimes we lose sight of who really has the most at stake here. And that’s the user.

I’m not saying that deliverables aren’t important. As BAs, we certainly should have a level of
accountability for the work we are responsible for. It’s just that in the end these splendid artifacts we work so hard to perfect become fairly useless if the solution doesn’t meet the needs of the business.

It’s my belief that a true test of a success is the user base getting the business value they expected from the solution in the first place. Keeping the business engaged (with the right level of communication) consistently throughout the project can help increase our chances of achieving this outcome. Also, using good elicitation techniques to get the right requirements from the start is essential. However, if users seem confused or disconnected during acceptance testing, then that’s red flag. Therefore, it’s important that we use acceptance testing as an opportunity to elicit feedback on how we can help smooth the transition to go-live. 

For instance, simple things like having a good user guide in place - which walks the user through everything from getting access to instructions on how they can get the most from the system to do their work - can go a long way towards ensuring true success. Therefore, incorporating user feedback throughout the process not only ensures that our own deliverables are correct, but the users will feel more engaged.  This will significantly help our chances of delivering a successful outcome.

Lesson learned: Focus on the user first, and keep them actively involved throughout the
implementation of the solution.  This not only increases our chance of implementing a solution that works, but it helps us avoid the great misfortune of delivering “junk.”