[Sun's essay] What is the most difficult to manage in project management?

Customer requirements are the most difficult tasks in project management. (Text/Sun Jibin)

 

The so-called management means Management of things, and ultimately management of people. Project management is no exception. For the project manager, the superior customer colleagues constitute a project circle. The relationship between colleagues is usually not very close, and the superiors don't seem to need you to take care of it. After all, the employees work under you, but you can't help but listen to you, so the rest is the customers. By the way, in the words of the project manager, the customer is the most difficult to deal.

At the same time, we know that managing things is also learned, and not all things are difficult. So what is the most difficult to manage? Of course, it is the most difficult thing you don't know before. So, what is something that the project manager did not know beforehand? -- Customer requirements.

Simply put, the customer's requirement is what the customer wants to do. In general, customers generally do not know what they really want. Now, you are a project manager. You have to worry about things that you cannot manage. Think about how painful it is.

So, let's talk deeply. Customer requirements include implied requirements and clear requirements. The implied requirement is the customer's statement of difficulties, difficulties, and dissatisfaction. The explicit requirement is the customer's statement of difficulties, difficulties, and dissatisfaction. That is to say, You need to guess what the customer wants from the customer's story, rather than clearly telling you what it wants. You haven't guessed it yet. He is talking about his own feelings, and he hasn't heard of it yet. In the future, he may guess it over and over again, even if the project plan has been confirmed, it has even been executed for more than half. In some cases, the project is finished and the customer looks at it. The customer is stupid: Isn't this what we want? However, for the project manager, the work may be done according to the customer's nod. This is ridiculous, isn't it?

 

So how can this problem be solved? In my experience, we have to work hard on both sides of the virtual reality and pragmatism.

There are three methods for retreat:

① What problems does the customer want to solve? There are no customers who want their systems to be used for viewing, rather than solving actual problems.

② Who are the users? We need to know who the system is (WHO, maybe a company, maybe a department, etc.)? Which position is a specific function used? The final comment is whether you are doing well or not. It is up to these actual users to make the decisions.

③ What is the customer's reference system? That is, we need to know the bottom line of the customer. Customers cannot say they need a bookkeeping system. At last, you can submit an abacus and two books to others.

There are also three pragmatic approaches:

① To simulate the system. Ppt and Excel are also used. The entire system or part of the system should be displayed to the customer intuitively. With this hand, you will not be biased, and the correct direction will be guaranteed.

② Leave evidence. That is to say, each step of requirement communication must have rules to follow and evidence to follow. For example, we can record the entire process through meeting records or emails. Including who said what, who agreed, and what the specific statement is. This can ensure the security of the project manager and project team, and improve the customer's sense of responsibility. In fact, sometimes the customer is not responsible because he is too strong.

③ There must be requirements for management rules. With the rules, you have the right. How can I raise requirements? How to change it? Who nodded? With these consensus, the project manager and the customer have fewer communication barriers and more tacit understanding. With this missing, it is very likely that the project manager has been kneeling at the customer's door for three days, but the customer pretended not to see it, and finally said that the project manager's communication was unfavorable.

 

All in all, the customer needs to be a devil, but you have to dance with him. The power of PM is the opposite.