Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Customer Feedback Received
George Jucan is an experienced Project Manager Professional (PMP) with 20 years of technical and management experience in complex environments, both in public and private sector. He is well known in the project management community as a successful IT project management consultant, speaker at public events, trainer and author of project management articles.
True involvement of end users, clients or their representatives (product managers) throughout the entire project dramatically increases the project's chance for success. This well-known truism is definitely easier to state than to apply. Finding the right balance of user involvement to ensure a smooth acceptance without allowing them to run the project (ever heard of scope creep?) is one of the most difficult tasks facing a project manager.
A recent gantthead article by Luc K. Richard titled Customer Feedback Wanted describes a very interesting example, which unfortunately is not uncommon on the software development landscape. The sample project depicted creates a perfect setting for a discussion of what we can do as project managers to get the needed feedback, despite all kind of obstacles.
For full details, please see the article But the short version is: Zack is a project manager that was handed down an SRS by the product manager for the next iteration of a software product. The product manager takes a week vacation, and then leaves for three more weeks to chase new sales in Europe. Zack is left without the product manager's support—and as the clients' representative--when crunched between budget constraints and an over-inflated scope of work. By the time the product manger returns to provide feedback, Zack's project is already late and over budget.
The article …
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"Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." - George Bernard Shaw |