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Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part XII - Diagnosis Doesn’t Only Take Requirements
December 30, 2007 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Requirements Management
Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements - Part XII - Diagnosis Doesn’t Only Take Requirements (#12 in the series Successfully Interviewing Your Project Customer and Gathering Project Requirements)
By Keith Mathis - PM Expert Live
In this section we discuss diagnosing the problem rather than just taking requirements. We focus on the idea of looking at the bigger picture of what the customer wants to accomplish. This means that we fight the urge to just make a deliverables list based on the requirements which the customer knows. We are attempting to go the extra mile in trying to determine what the overlying goals are and why this project has surfaced.
During the interview process, it is very frustrating to see the interviewer only function as an order taker - not looking at the real goal of the project. An order taker can be defined as someone who interviews the customer and makes a basic requirements list with little or no analysis. As you can see, this could hurt the project long-term and miss the mark as to the real goal desired by the customer.
It is not uncommon for a customer to use certain terms and acronyms, thinking they are communicating to the project team or project manager, only to be misusing those same words. It is due to this that the interviewer must be very skilled at deciphering what the customer really wants.
As the interviewer gets more comfortable diagnosing, it allows him or her to move away from becoming an order taker. Diagnosing is more than conducting a basic interview; it is going the extra mile in looking at the strategic objectives in what the project will accomplish long-term. When an interviewer is in the diagnosing mode, the questions are more precise and pointed. This also leads to a happier customer when the project is finished.
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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