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Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part VI - Steps to Conducting Structured Interviews

December 13, 2007 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Requirements Management

Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part VI - Steps to Conducting Structured Interviews (#6 in the series Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements)
By Keith Mathis - PM Expert Live

Sometimes conducting an interview is extremely difficult because the customer has not been educated in this process and has no knowledge or understanding as to why this should happen. It is for this reason that, at times, a series of meetings, and possibly management intervention, is needed to help educate the customer on the new process and the reasons why your projects will be including this level of interview.

Lay the proper foundation

Laying the proper foundation with the customer is extremely important in making sure the goals of these meetings are thoroughly met. You must explain in detail that conducting the interview is part of guaranteeing the success of the project. One way of reinforcing this foundation is to make sure you come prepared with a list of questions so that it does not appear you are trying to run these meetings with little or no planning.

Sometimes taking a few moments to explain the overall process of how a project plan is put together, as well as the capability of reaching those goals, is more than enough to convince the customer of the benefits of being involved.

Make this event relaxed

The customer interview is not the time to be combative or argumentative. You are only to understand the customer’s goals. This meeting is for building a good relationship with strong communication skills for the purpose of gathering data and information. If this meeting is combative, the customer will not continue to meet with you throughout the project.

During these meetings, you are attempting to set an atmosphere that is very comfortable and relaxed but formal enough to appear as an orderly process that is structured for gathering the right information from the customer. If these meetings come across in any other manner, it will appear unproductive to the customer.

Take notes and document comments

Taking notes throughout this meeting is not only nice to do, but it is necessary for convincing the customer of the seriousness and importance of this meeting. In some cases, when projects have a strong commonality, it is appropriate to develop a requirements interview template which would contain a listing of the most common questions you should ask. These questions should be detailed for the purpose of gathering the breadth of the scope as early as possible in the process. Using a template or form once again reinforces the seriousness of this meeting. Throughout the interview, you should listen intently for words or phrases the customer repeats. Those phrases and comments need to be detailed and documented, as well as questioned, to make sure you understand what the customer is verbalizing.

Be supportive

Being supportive during the interview process means making comments which allow the customer to know you understand where he or she is going. This may include many things as simple as facial expressions, nodding your head, and asking clarifying questions to allow the customer the ability to know you understand what he or she is telling us about the project.

Get detail, detail, detail

Asking and probing for the real meaning behind each comment is imperative to conducting a great interview. What you are trying to gain from the customer are the precise details of the project, how it should function, and what the goals are with this project.

You can see that the interview should not be something that is fast-paced and hurried. It should gather a great deal of information and allow you to be able to view the project through the eyes of the customer. After the requirements interview, you should be able to concisely detail to your team all of the above information. Your team now has the greatest chance of being able to successfully complete the project and reach these measurable goals.

Dr. Keith Mathis, founder and CEO of The Mathis Group, specializes in Project Management, Management Leadership, and Marketing training for private businesses and government agencies of all kinds. He offers 33 Project Management courses, is a Project Management Professional, is certified by the Project Management Institute and will customize every training session to your individual company’s needs. The Mathis Group also sponsors www.pmexpertlive.com, which is a powerful project management resource with free reports, podcasts, videos, and a monthly newsletter. He also offers customized management training and coaching on any subject with prolific communication and professionalism.

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