mhroche (2/3/2013)
While end users tell you all day what they want to be able to, do a system or tool cannot be successful without accomplishing whatever goal was set forth.Sometimes the challenge is deciphering what that goal is. #of users and groups and different business functions increase the complexity of that task drastically.To reiterate another poster's story about web solutions, in my experience Marketing teams are great stakeholders because of their creative ideas, but driving through the fun details like color, etc in early solution meetings can be challenging.
Oh and the biggest gut shot is having something placed in 12-18 month backlog. With small data solutions my business clients have almost always proceeded to bootstrap an interim solution. Rock - hard place.
Indeed. Ask 10,000 people to describe in detail a "Perfect" anything (software application, healthcare plan, night out on the town, spouse ... anything), and you'll get 10,000 different answers. Any plan that involves a lot of people and includes the word "perfect" is doomed to failure. Always steer clear of that big rock.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho