The 5 year old Customer- La La La La La La {with fingers in ears}

A few months ago I wrote this blog about the cost of ignoring known requirements that will be coming in future iterations. One of our current clients still refuses to listen to that logic even though we have repeatedly had to redo work because we are not allowed to think about or discuss anything that is not suppose to be developed today.

Last fall we built a web version of a smart client application for the preparation of home users. The week we were to deliver it, the client decided they didn't want to implement it because there were very few home users at that time. They insisted we trash the project. Make it disappear so it didn't look like we spent time on it. In the next few weeks we will begin to build it again, but this time against an architecture that has been completely reworked thanks to the Programmer from Hades we employed. Of course that programmer was only allowed to do their damage because of the same client insisting they could manage them.

Although our team works a lot of overtime trying to keep this project a success, in reality it isn't. Our company is being paid about 2/3 of what we have spent keeping this project alive and well, and the client has wasted a least 50% of their spent budget on rework because of their lack of development experience and poor choices based on the fact that they perceive themselves capable of making the right choices.

We recently got another La La La La La La {with fingers in ears} session. Where we were told to stop wasting their time and money by planning. We should never be planning, we should always just be developing. We were planning an architecture to help fulfill the next iteration's requirements. Without it, we will in essence need to rebuild the application a third time.

So why are we sticking with it? Our sales guys have mistaken a dangling carrot for a dangling gold bar. They believe that some day the client will begin to listen to people who develop software for a living, instead of pretending that they have the experience needed to make the right decisions.

Do I think it will change? Nope. I used to be associated with a company that would go into organizations and clean house for them. Part of the assessments they did of individuals resulted in a rating of trainability based on several criteria. Being non-trainable meant they were not capable of change and they were marked for elimination. I am afraid we are dealing with some very untrainable folks.

Could we bring this client down the hard way? We definitely could try, but I don't believe it is within the scope of my responsibility and I would be doing the same thing the client is doing. I would be making decisions that I may not be qualified to make. I develop software, I am not a salesman, I don't run companies, I don't manage my client, and I certainly have the opportunity to simply leave the project if I don't like the way the powers that be are running it.

So how do we cope with the stupidity and the angry outburst from the client? This book definitely helped. If you have read the book, you will understand the statement that we are dealing with one that falls into the category of incompetent and certified (More here from Bob). It also helps to keep it all in a bigger perspective. If done right or wrong, in 10 years none of it will matter anyway.

It amazes me that some months, if we just didn't do any work at all for the entire month, we would be 6 weeks ahead of where we ended up after working all month. Go figure….