Lurking Discoveries that Can Destroy Planning and Requirements Definition

Joe Wynne is a versatile Project Manager experienced in delivering medium-scope projects in large organizations that improve workforce performance and business processes. He has a proven track record of delivering effective, technology-savvy solutions in a variety of industries and a unique combination of strengths in both process management and workforce management.

  Estimating   Requirements Management   Risk Management  

In a way, it was like a horror movie. You know the kind: A small group of people are on their own, far away from assistance. In a remote hotel or arctic post; an abandoned summer camp or an abandoned hospital or castle. But it wasn’t any of those places…it was my workplace. And just like a horror movie, the small band of project workers did not see the monster (or cannibals, or sharknado) coming. In our case, we should have been more prepared.

It was an easy project, ironically enough. Perhaps that was why we were not as vigilant. We were adding web pages with new but simple functionality. The content was provided by an industry-leading third party. That third party was also a supplier of services already with an established relationship for over a year. No new contracts or relationship building necessary, either. Few changes were expected to be made to the content, which was similar to competitors’ web content.

All those expectations were incorrect, however. What really chewed up the original schedule were new discoveries during planning and requirements gathering. First, there was a new group represented on our team with no process for fulfilling their function in place; we had to develop that on the fly. As soon as we had control over that process, it turned out there was a high-level decision that required new development on our end to meet an …

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