Comments on: Rearranging Furniture for an Unfocused Client

By: Max Pool

Max Pool — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:14:38 +0000

@James –

Wow! FANTASTIC ideas, I even learned some new poker calls with your comment…

By: devtrench

devtrench — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:39:23 +0000

You speak the truth. I’ve found that the temperament of the client has a huge impact on scope creep and staying within budget. Great clients are ones that are decisive, go getters, know what they want done, and most importantly, don’t get distracted — they’re focused. Some red flags that I’ve come across over the years:

* Client doesn’t look at you when they talk
* Client only speaks in “what ifs”
* When you get down to details, the client doesn’t know, or has to leave
* When you show a client your software for the first time, they freak out
* The client mulls over tiny details like fonts, colors, and other design features, but can never get you a feature list, or other crucial information you need.
* Client talks about normal and obvious conventions in strange abstractions. This is a weak example, but I had a client talk about their DIDO database. DIDO is ‘data-in, data-out’ which all databases can do, but this client drooled over the acronym they made up.

I could go on forever about client red flags…

James

By: david

david — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:53:46 +0000

This is great advice that I wish I’d heard a few years ago. Thanks for sharing it.

By: the matt

the matt — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:07:50 +0000

and in a software product(s) company, sadly it’s the unfocused boss that can wreak this havoc! been there, twice, miserable.

heya max – kudos on the blog, as well as the new gig!

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:15:52 +0000

You are SO right!