3. Who Has the Final Say?

We often get clients who say "We can't change the estimates, the resources or the scope. It is set in stone and final." So I like to reply with "Who has the final say in this?" Typically they say things like Senior Management or the Customer. The thing is that just isn't true. Visit www.standishgroup.com and check out the Chaos Report, or just trust your instincts: How many projects succeed on time, on budget, of value and with sufficient quality (the Rational definition of project success)? Back in '99 it was 9% for large company large projects. I believe that number is up now but still isn't above say 20%.

So who had the final say? I doubt it was Sr. Management or the Customer as probably 100% of them wanted success but only a fraction of them got it. They can stomp their feet and insist and threaten all they want, but in the end we can only do what we are capable of. It is important for them to remember this. Then we can say something like "Ok, so we can't do it all. I know this makes you upset. But we need to push through that and decide what is most important. If the most important thing is the date, then help us choose what subset to implement.

If you just stay angry and insist on 100%, in the end you will still get less, and WE will have been forced to guess what part to get done. Or worse, we won't guess, and you won't have anything at the end, except a promise that if you give us more time you'll get 100% someday