Expectation setting is a very critical part of any deal making. It is important that stakeholders clearly understand what to expect out of each other during and at the end of an ongoing engagement. I have seen time and again people fumbling during expectations setting exercise. In our initial discussion we (The client X, Third party Consulting Company and Me) agreed to use project management approch towards the change management tasks ahead of us. The project scoping activity which captures and formalizes expectations thus became the most critical part of project initiation. I believe so should it be.
The UK market development strategy that I agreed to develop for X still had a few finer details that needed some attention before I could dive in to the sea of market research for them. One major point that I insisted and ensured was included in the scope document was that we, all stakeholders, revisit and review the project scope at the time of delivery of first milestone. This was to ensure that we were on track and to check we are carrying enough fuel to reach our set goal/s. The fine print that I had to phrase read “There will be a revisit to the scope of the project on 31 July 2009 as gathering primary data from suppliers & customer will present some challenges due to limited time frame, this in turn will shape the course of research.”
As you can see I had some serious concerns about the way my data gathering activity would carry forward. In anticipation of issues mentioned and given that only limited resources were available at my disposal and also at client’s disposal the above clause would have been the all important SOS button. However I would like to add here that the need to revoke the above clause never occurred as I was able to gather enough relevant data to carry out the required analysis.
Failing to articulate concisely what one expects from the other party in a well structured agreement is a sure road to disaster. Each party must ensure that they articulate issues and challenges that they anticipate during the course of project delivery. It is important all stakeholders carry out due diligence and chalk out risk mitigation plan before they start to work with each other. A poorly written and loosely held agreement apart from pushing up the transaction costs and lowering ROI for the client will also result in undermining working relationship between the parties involved. Clear objective setting will act as a guard against any whims that may tempt the party/ies involved from shifting the goal post midway during the course of project execution.
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