Customer Service Article

Customer Satisfaction Secrets:  Six Secrets of Outstanding Customer Retention – By Ed Sykes

When I was Vice President of Sales for a New York based computer services company, I walked by one of my salesperson’s desk when the phone began to ring and picked up the phone to answer the call.  It was one call that tested my customer service skills.

 
It was a call from a Senior Vice President for Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.  She was not happy with the service our representative was giving her and said she was considering going to another vendor for her computer services.  I let her talk as she vented her anger.
 

I reintroduced myself and let her know that I would personally appreciate her sharing her customer service concerns with me.  I also let her know we valued her as a customer and wanted her business and that I would do whatever it took to make her happy with our company.  She then let me know that someone better “make her happy” by the end of the day or we could forget about doing business again with Chase Manhattan Bank.  I let her know I personally could see her in one hour, and she agreed to the meeting.

 
I put together the solution and took the #4 subway line to Wall Street to meet at her office.  As I waited in the lobby of her building for an elevator, five women gathered around me to also wait for the elevator.  The elevator arrived and we all walked into the elevator.  I took the initiative and greeted the group of women and commented on the weather.  This opened up the conversation between all of us and soon, with additional exchanges, we were laughing about our day.

 
I left the elevator, and one of the women also got off on the same floor.  I asked her where the Senior Vice President’s office was located, and she said she would be glad to take me to the office.  We continued our engaging conversation along the way and, before I knew it, we were at the Senior Vice President’s office door.

 
I was about to thank the woman for escorting me, when she walked around and behind the Senior Vice President’s desk and announced that she was Senior Vice President and how could she help me.  Let’s say I was surprised.  I introduced myself, we both paused for a moment, and then we both laughed.

 
To say the least, we had a very productive meeting, which led to a great customer relation with Chase Manhattan Bank and her for many years and with the bank even beyond her retirement.  She was so impressed with her positive experience that day that she became my biggest advocate to other senior management within the bank, which led to new customers and millions in additional business.

 
What, then, are the secrets to customer retention and winning back an angry customer so that the situation becomes an outstanding customer service experience?
 

The following are six customer service secrets for winning back customers, increasing customer satisfaction, and increasing your bottom line:

Start with a Positive Attitude – Look at any customer service situation as a challenge and an opportunity to learn and grow, and take care of the customer’s needs.  Start with a positive attitude that says, “I want to help you and, together, we will find a solution.” I always say, “You never know who is watching you, so always give them your best face.”  Because I had a positive attitude in the above situation, I put on my best face when interacting with the women in the elevator, and this led to a positive impression of me with the senior vice president.”
Listen with Empathy – Put yourself in the customer’s shoes, experience his/her pain, and communicate to the customer you understand the pain.  You can communicate your understanding of their pain by saying, “Thank you for sharing your concerns with me.  If I were in your shoes, I would feel the same way.”

Take Ownership – Don’t make excuses for what happened with the customer.  Apologize and take ownership for what happened with the customer.  The sooner you take ownership of the customer service challenge, the sooner you can take ownership of the customer service solutions.

Communicate Your Plan of Action – Let the customer know what you are willing to do to take care of his/her concerns.  The customer becomes frustrated when he/she feels uninvolved or uncertain as to what you are planning for the customer service solution.  Ask for the customer’s commitment to the plan before proceeding with the action.  My plan of action started when I told the customer that I was going to take the subway immediately to meet with her, and the complete customer service plan was communicated during our first meeting.

Take Action – The most important customer service secret is taking action.  You can go through all the other customer service secrets and if you don’t take action, all your actions and credibility are lost.  You increase customer retention when you make sure you deliver more than what is promised.  Act quickly, act with a quality solution, and act with integrity. 

Ask for the Business – During the customer service challenge, I expressed several times that I valued and wanted her business.  This let’s the customer know that you don’t take his/her business for granted.  It’s even more important that you express to the customer that you want his/her business after the customer service situation is resolved.  You can also give an extra incentive to the customer for acting now to continue giving you the business.  It can be as simple as a discount coupon or some other special offering.

Apply these customer service secrets with your customers and you will increase customer satisfaction and customer retention and win back customers to increase your bottom line.

Customer Satisfaction in 7 Steps

It’s a well known fact that no business can exist without customers. In the business of Website design, it’s important to work closely with your customers to make sure the site or system you create for them is as close to their requirements as you can manage. Because it’s critical that you form a close working relationship with your client, customer service is of vital importance. What follows are a selection of tips that will make your clients feel valued, wanted and loved.

1. Encourage Face-to-Face Dealings

This is the most daunting and downright scary part of interacting with a customer. If you’re not used to this sort of thing it can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience. Rest assured, though, it does get easier over time. It’s important to meet your customers face to face at least once or even twice during the course of a project.

My experience has shown that a client finds it easier to relate to and work with someone they’ve actually met in person, rather than a voice on the phone or someone typing into an email or messenger program. When you do meet them, be calm, confident and above all, take time to ask them what they need. I believe that if a potential client spends over half the meeting doing the talking, you’re well on your way to a sale.

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed

This goes without saying really. We all know how annoying it is to wait days for a response to an email or phone call. It might not always be practical to deal with all customers’ queries within the space of a few hours, but at least email or call them back and let them know you’ve received their message and you’ll contact them about it as soon as possible. Even if you’re not able to solve a problem right away, let the customer know you’re working on it.

A good example of this is my Web host. They’ve had some trouble with server hardware which has caused a fair bit of downtime lately. At every step along the way I was emailed and told exactly what was going on, why things were going wrong, and how long it would be before they were working again. They also apologised repeatedly, which was nice. Now if they server had just gone down with no explanation I think I’d have been pretty annoyed and may have moved my business elsewhere. But because they took time to keep me informed, it didn’t seem so bad, and I at least knew they were doing something about the problems. That to me is a prime example of customer service.

3. Be Friendly and Approachable

A fellow SitePointer once told me that you can hear a smile through the phone. This is very true. It’s very important to be friendly, courteous and to make your clients feel like you’re their friend and you’re there to help them out. There will be times when you want to beat your clients over the head repeatedly with a blunt object – it happens to all of us. It’s vital that you keep a clear head, respond to your clients’ wishes as best you can, and at all times remain polite and courteous.

4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy

This may not be too important when you’re just starting out, but a clearly defined customer service policy is going to save you a lot of time and effort in the long run. If a customer has a problem, what should they do? If the first option doesn’t work, then what? Should they contact different people for billing and technical enquiries? If they’re not satisfied with any aspect of your customer service, who should they tell?

There’s nothing more annoying for a client than being passed from person to person, or not knowing who to turn to. Making sure they know exactly what to do at each stage of their enquiry should be of utmost importance. So make sure your customer service policy is present on your site — and anywhere else it may be useful.

5. Attention to Detail (also known as ‘The Little Niceties’)

Have you ever received a Happy Birthday email or card from a company you were a client of? Have you ever had a personalised sign-up confirmation email for a service that you could tell was typed from scratch? These little niceties can be time consuming and aren’t always cost effective, but remember to do them.

Even if it’s as small as sending a Happy Holidays email to all your customers, it’s something. It shows you care; it shows there are real people on the other end of that screen or telephone; and most importantly, it makes the customer feel welcomed, wanted and valued.

6. Anticipate Your Client’s Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out

Sometimes this is easier said than done! However, achieving this supreme level of understanding with your clients will do wonders for your working relationship.

Take this as an example: you’re working on the front-end for your client’s exciting new ecommerce endeavour. You have all the images, originals and files backed up on your desktop computer and the site is going really well. During a meeting with your client he/she happens to mention a hard-copy brochure their internal marketing people are developing. As if by magic, a couple of weeks later a CD-ROM arrives on their doorstep complete with high resolution versions of all the images you’ve used on the site. A note accompanies it which reads:

“Hi, you mentioned a hard-copy brochure you were working on and I wanted to provide you with large-scale copies of the graphics I’ve used on the site. Hopefully you’ll be able to make use of some in your brochure.”

Your client is heartily impressed, and remarks to his colleagues and friends how very helpful and considerate his Web designers are. Meanwhile, in your office, you lay back in your chair drinking your 7th cup of coffee that morning, safe in the knowledge this happy customer will send several referrals your way.

7. Honour Your Promises

It’s possible this is the most important point in this article. The simple message: when you promise something, deliver. The most common example here is project delivery dates.

Clients don’t like to be disappointed. Sometimes, something may not get done, or you might miss a deadline through no fault of your own. Projects can be late, technology can fail and sub-contractors don’t always deliver on time. In this case a quick apology and assurance it’ll be ready ASAP wouldn’t go amiss.

Conclusion

Customer service, like any aspect of business, is a practiced art that takes time and effort to master. All you need to do to achieve this is to stop and switch roles with the customer. What would you want from your business if you were the client? How would you want to be treated? Treat your customers like your friends and they’ll always come back.

The Seven Characteristics of a High-Performing Team

If you lead a team, you know that the journey to high-performance is ongoing. It’s the rare team that achieves high-performance and just stays there. In my business life, whether I’ve managed a team within an organization, or run my own company, it’s been unusual to keep the same team together for longer than a year. Team members come and go, driven by the needs of the organization and their own career goals. And every time the members of a team changes, the team needs to regroup and refocus.

What’s a team leader to do? For starters, focus on the seven characteristics of a high-performing team :

Shared Purpose and Direction

Motivating Goals

Commitment to Individual and Team Roles

Multi-Directional Communication

Authority to Decide or Act

Reliance on Diverse Talents

Mutual Support and TrustShared Purpose and Direction

On a high-performing team, everyone on the team is committed to the team’s purpose. They know exactly what that purpose is because the team leader keeps them focused by constantly communicating that purpose in team meetings and regular updates. The team leader helps each individual team member meet his or new own needs while serving the overall purpose of the team.

Motivating Goals

The team leader ensures that everyone on the team has clearly defined goals and targets. In some organizations, the strategic goals and departmental objectives are determined by senior management. In that case, the team leader makes sure that these goals are clearly discussed. Team members should understand how their jobs support the achievement of the defined goals, and, if possible, have the opportunity to develop individual goals and action plans that spell out how they will contribute to the success of the organization.

Commitment to Individual and Team Roles

On a Total Team, team members have clearly defined expectations but they also understand how each of their roles is linked to every other role. Team leaders ensure that team members are cross-trained in other responsibilities so that everyone can back each other up when needed. The team leader makes sure that individual job responsibilities are fulfilled, but, at the same time, works to help the individuals develop a common language, processes and approaches that allow them to function as a team.

Multi-Directional Communication

On the best teams, team members solve problems, communicate with each other, and keep the team leader updated on current challenges or emerging issues. On low-performing teams, communication is one-way (from team leader to team members) or two-way (between the team leader and individuals). Skilled leaders focus on developing multi-directional communication, avoiding the trap of communicating with individuals members of the team.

Authority to Decide or Act

No doubt about it, new teams may have to earn this authority by demonstrating that they understand the team’s purpose, processes and priorities. However, effective team leaders work toward pushing authority for the team’s outcomes to the team members. Team members know how and when to get approval for decisions and, in the best of cases, are charged with making on-the-spot decisions when a customer is facing them. On low-performing teams, team members have to constantly get approval before taking action, significantly reducing their effectiveness and negatively affecting their sense of engagement on the team.

Reliance on Diverse Talents

Savvy team leaders pay attention to helping team members understand their unique strengths, talents, and weaknesses. No individual team member can be good at everything. The best team leaders assist everyone to develop an appreciation for individual style differences, natural gifts, and personal experience. Teams are encouraged to use the language of acceptance and appreciation, rather than criticism and judgment. Team leaders consciously hire team members who bring complementary skill sets, unique experience, and diverse perspectives.

Mutual Support and Trust

The seventh characteristic may be the most important, and frankly, is probably the most elusive. The team leader can’t force a team to be supportive and trusting—it’s a natural result of shared responsibility, shared success, and mutual respect. The high-performing team achieves mutual support and trust because they have a history of working together to achieve grand dreams and results. They have met challenges, overcome obstacles, backed each other up in good times and bad. The Total Team has earned each other’s trust.

Building a high-performing team is not an easy task. However, if you’re a team leader that is up to the challenge, then consciously focus on developing these seven characteristics. Bring them to your next team meeting and ask team members to evaluate them. How do you know whether each of these characteristics is present or absent on your team? What is the team willing to do to develop these seven characteristics? Then ask the individuals on your team to commit to 3 – 5 specific actions they will take in the next 60 days. Revisit these commitments regularly and see what develops. I guarantee a rewarding journey to high-performance.

Career Makeover Tips: How to Choose the Right Job

The prospect of starting on a new career can be exhilarating and promising. After all, who hasn’t thought about making a fresh start? But the process can also be full of stress. What if you don’t make the right choice? Following a few simple steps can make the whole process a little more manageable. And who knows, maybe you’ll end up with your dream job!

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Step 1: “Ideas”

• 1. What makes you happy? List out your hobbies to find out what makes you happy. E.g., I would put sketching, being close to nature, watching home improvement shows, baking, reading about current affairs in Asia, tinkering around with the computer to write little scripts that improve productivity, making up little stories to amuse my little kid, and travelling to different countries to see indigenous wildlife.
• 2. What are you good at? List out subjects you took in school/college that you did well at, and also things that other people look at and say “Hey, that’s really good!”

Outcome: A list of free-form items of things you like doing, not necessarily in the form of careers or job descriptions. Order the list to keep the ideas you like more at the top.

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Step 2: “Goals”

• 1. What are your goals? Remember to think long-term. Making money will probably be an important one (unless you are financially independent). But also include goals like reducing stress, staying outdoors, working with people, getting a month off every year to visit your home country, working with your hands to create something, helping the needy etc.
• 2. Make each goal specific (e.g., Money -> $80,000 per year by the year 2006).

Outcome: A list of goals you want to accomplish. Order the list by importance.

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Step 3: “Careers”

• 1. Look at your Idea List and your Goal List side by side. Are there ideas you can eliminate or set aside because they do not meet enough of your goals? If so, do it and narrow down your list of ideas into a shorter list of maybe 6 or less.
• 2. For each of the ideas on your short list (or some combination of the ideas), come up with a career or job. E.g., author of children’s book, chef on a cooking show, journalist writing targeted travelogues, computer programmer, catering business owner, specialized building contractor etc.

Outcome: A list of (5-10) careers that are potential candidates. Order the list to keep the careers you like more at the top.

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Step 4: “Research”

• 1. For each candidate career, answer the following questions:
  • How many years/months will it take to educate yourself on it?
  • How many years/months will it take to gain enough experience?
  • How will you get experience at it? Can you volunteer somewhere for part-pay or no-pay while you’re learning?
  • Talk to real people working in the field.
• 2. Look at your candidate careers again and eliminate those for which the preparation time or expense is unrealistically high – e.g., something that will take a 6-year PhD with no financial aid expected.

Outcome: A list of (1-4) careers that are on your short list.

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Step 5: “Take Action”

• 1. Can you try out a career for a while? E.g., devote a couple of weekends (or more) to write a children’s story and try to get it published. Or take a summer internship at a computer software company. Maybe you can try out a new career part-time while continuing to hold your current steady job.
• 2. Imagine what it would feel like to wake up every day of the week and work in the career you are evaluating. Will you still like it a few years from now?
• 3. Get all the information you can about how to get started once you decide on the right career for you. E.g., dig up everything you can on the internet or in your public library on how to start a catering business.

Outcome: A hands-on idea of what your life will be like if you switched to your new job.

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Step 6: “Decide”

• 1. Decide on the best career for you.
• 2. Write down the pros and the cons and the reasons you made this decision. This will be useful in the future if you start having doubts about your choice. You can reassure yourself that you thought this through carefully.
• 3. Come up with an alternative plan if things don’t work out exactly the way you’re planning them.

Outcome: A brand new career!

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Remember that your work’s not done until you make your dream job a reality. In order to do that, you must update your resume, obtain the relevant training, prepare for interviews, apply to jobs and start interviewing.

Hopefully, you have a fresh brand new career opportunity to look forward to. Or maybe this whole process taught you to value your current career and realize that you are already in your dream job. Either way, you will have learnt something about yourself and your needs. Even if you decide not to make a drastic career change, maybe it will have inspired you to take up a new hobby or a new activity that will make your life more balanced, complete and enriched.

Good luck!!

Lifecycle of a Project – Wrapping up the project

Wrap up and Celebrate are the 2 big items left.

It is time to install the product at your client’s site and provide them with all the documentation and training that they need.

You must gain the client’s acceptance of the deliverable. If the acceptance criteria were well defined in the first phase of the project, all should be well.
Take some time to write up an internal report on the project – something that is meant only for your company. This report should cover the overall success of the project, strengths and weaknesses, lessons learnt, recommendations for next time, and reusable components that can be used for other projects.

Finally, CELEBRATE! This is a very important and often overlooked step. Your team has worked hard, and their efforts need to be recognized. They also need a small breather before they jump into their next tasks. The celebration can be a party away from the company’s premises, gift certificates to movies/restaurants etc. This sort of team-building is important, and will boost employee morale and productivity.
There are three important aspects of project management that we haven’t covered in as much detail as they deserve: Giving Presentations; Boosting Employee Morale and Productivity; and Time Management. But those are topics for another day and page. 🙂 Good luck!!

Lifecycle of a Project – Monitoring progress

Well, you’ve successfully started off the project. But you can’t sit back and relax now. you’ve got to continuously monitor progress.

Institute regular progress reports; weekly works well. Tell your team that the report does not have to be formal or pretty; just a clear concise listing of salient points will do. If someone misses a progress report, don’t overlook it, but quickly ensure that the importance of the report is made clear to that person.

Hold regular status meetings at predetermined days/times to allow people to be prepared. Catch deviations from the plan or schedule early, and take corrective action. Keep the client informed about changes.
If the client asks for extra items, negotiate either extra time or extra resources (and therefore money) to meet the increased expectations. But do try to throw in a few small freebies – extra items that you will not charge the client extra for, in terms of time or money.

Tip: Always send out an agenda well before any meeting. This minimizes wasted time and there won’t be any “I will have to look that up and get back to you.”

Reminder: If there is someone at these meetings who is unfocussed and rambling, it falls upon you to firmly bring the meeting back to focus without disrespecting the rambler.

Always give people credit for their ideas. Never put down any idea as “stupid”.

Your team is looking to you for leadership. Try to gain consensus for your idea rather than forcing it on people.

Your team is looking to you for inspiration. If you want your employees to be conscientious in their work, provide the example by being conscientious yourself.

Provide constant feedback to your team members. Give feedback soon after the corresponding achievement or failure. Feedback should be specific, not general and vague. I have seen announcements made like this: “A big thank you to Chris for working hard to make this project a success.” What about Dave and Ellen who also worked hard and did their part? A better announcement would have been: “Thanks to everyone who worked hard on this project and made it a success. A special thank you to Chris who stayed late last Friday to fix a critical problem.” Since Chris is being thanked for a very specific thing, Dave and Ellen cannot take offence.

Institute and mandate use of a change control system like CVS to maintain progressive versions of your software and even documentation. Have an organized QA procedure to ensure the quality of your product.

Tip: Don’t forget to assign somebody to do documentation like User Manuals. Make sure the documentation person is involved in the project from beginning to end so that he/she understands all the context.

Finally! It’s time to wrap up the project. Icecream for everyone? Good idea, but all in good time.

Lifecycle of a Project – Getting the project off to a start

Now that you’ve created the project plan, it is an exciting time. You get to kick off your project! You must first recruit a team. Ideally, choose people who have a history of collaborating well together. Pick a good mix of people – some senior and some junior.

Remember that your goals are to give the senior members leadership experience, and also to get the junior members to better their technical expertise. Clearly establish rules up-front. You must make sure the team members know whom to approach for small technical issues, big roadblocks, and technical help.

If a senior team member is responsible for a junior member’s work, make sure that you give the senior member the authority to meet that responsibility. Responsibility and authority must always go together. If Bob is responsible for a task’s success, but Ivan who is implementing that task is not accountable to Bob, then Bob will be ineffective in ensuring the success of the task.

Tip: Try to ensure that for any key piece of functionality, 2 people are in the know. If you rely on only one person, and that person is unavailabe due to some unforeseen reason, the project will be in trouble.

Make sure everyone is aware of the schedule for the project as well as intermediate milestones. It is important to get everyone on the same page as early as possible so that they can plan their execution.

Go easy on the documentation here. Some of the major/complex tasks should have their design documented, but not every single task. UML can be useful in this kind of documentation, but don’t go overboard and try to document detailed class diagrams for every single class. (This is just duplicating the implementation.) Instead, if there is a complicated control flow or multithreaded functionality, draw sequence diagrams to make it clear.

Lifecycle of a Project – Planning the Project

Break the entire project up into individual activities. The completion of each activity should be measurable. As far as possible, each activity should also be assignable as an independent entity to an implementor/developer. This way, delays in one activity will not hold up other independent activities.

Estimate how long it will take to complete each activity. This is partly an art. As I gained more experience and became more familiar with the working styles of my team members, I got better at estimating duration. A general rule of thumb is to calculate an optimistic duration (if everything goes exactly right), a pessimistic duration (team member falls sick, unexpected technical hurdle comes up) and a likely duration (most things go right, but may run into a few hitches). Then compute the estimated duration as (Optimistic + Pessimistic + 4*Likely)/6. That way, you’re giving more weight to the likely scenario, but keeping options open for a very good or a very bad scenario. If you underestimate the duration, you will not be able to deliver on time, which hurts the reputation of the company. If you overestimate the duration, you are basically cutting out additional features that could have been added to make the product more competitive in the market.

Assign resource types to each activity. Note that at this stage, you are not assigning specific people to the activities; you are assigning only a resource type, e.g. Senior Database Developer, Java Developer, Senior UI Developer. However, it helps to have specific people in mind. That way, you know what other projects they are working on, how much time they can devote to this activity, and when they will be on vacation or leave.

Keeping track of activities, their durations, dependencies and resource assignments can quickly become complicated. Use a tool like a Gantt chart to make sense of the complexity. A product like Microsoft Project allows you to create Gantt charts showing dependencies and durations of activities. You can also mark milestones. You can change starting dates or resources around and watch the effect on the milestone/deliverable dates.

Tip: Don’t break activities up into minute overly-detailed tasks at this time. Things are bound to change, and overly-detailed Gantt charts can be extremely hard to modify and keep up-to-date. Think in terms of big modules and keep activities few and simple.

Tip: Remember holidays (like Memorial Day, Thanksgiving) and vacation days of team members while making the Gantt chart. Also account for some slack in the work during the week around Christmas and New Year. Microsoft Project will let you set certain days as non-working days and will compute deliverable dates accordingly.

This is the time to write a project plan or a high-level architecture and design document. Be sure to provide sufficient background in this document so that the actual implementors (development team) have enough information to complete their respective tasks. You must research alternatives and document clearly what the alternatives were, and why a particular alternative was picked. Otherwise, much later, you will have to face long discussions where the same alternatives and decisions are discussed again.

Reminder: Keep the architecture and design document in a shared directory, make sure everyone relevant can access it with the appropriate privileges (read-write or read-only), keep the updated revision history in the document itself, and email back and forth only pointers to the document and not the document itself.

UML is useful for this kind of documentation. Draw use case diagrams and deployment diagrams at this stage, coupled with perhaps a few sequence diagrams to clarify complex control flow. Microsoft Visio is one of the tools that allows you to draw UML diagrams electronically, though they can also be hand-drawn.

Reminder: Electronic (as opposed to hand-drawn) documents are easier to modify, copy and keep track of.

Tip: Throughout the architecture and design process, keep in the back of your mind that your company will benefit if components of the product can be reused for other projects/clients. Keep copyright laws in mind, however.

Alright! It’s time to start executing all that well-planned material.

Lifecycle of a Project – Defining the project scope

The first thing to realize is that the client often does not know what he/she wants. Never start a project without first agreeing on clear requirements. This is what worked for me. I would start with a simple Project Overview and discuss it verbally with the client. Then I would go back and write up a detailed Functional Spec containing a Requirements Matrix. (I describe each of these documents below.) The more effort you spend here upfront, the less crises you will face in later stages of the project when things are harder or impossible to change.

A Project Overview looks like this:

• Problem description
• Goal – 1 or 2 measurable broad goals, achievable in the timeframe
• Objectives – a small list of specific sub-goals
• Success criteria – how will we know when we’re done?
• Assumptions – ensure that there are no surprises later
• Risks and alternative plan – if something goes wrong, can we change direction?

Each of these sections should be described in plain English, with as few technical details as possible. One or two paragraphs per section usually suffice. The aim is to arrive at an agreement on the broad objectives of the project. Discuss the Project Overview verbally, in a face-to-face meeting with the client’s managers, if possible. This is the first test of your communication skills – both written and oral.

Now that you understand broadly what the client wants, it’s time to refine the requirements by writing a Functional Spec and a Requirements Matrix. A Functional Spec essentially tells the client and yourself what you are going to do. It should contain all the sections that were in the Project Overview, but more detailed versions of them. The Objectives should be broken up into functional categories and described in detail. What is a Requirements Matrix. It is simply a big table listing and numbering every single function that you are committing to implement. Here’s a sample row from a typical Requirements Matrix that I write:

Req #	Description	Phase	Comments
39	Retrieve utilization information from deviceA	1	Will retrieve every 30 minutes

Sometimes, you may want to implement only part of a requirement. Split the requirement up into sub-requirements, number them, and relegate the unwanted ones to future phases. (You may even be able to get away with an unspecified date for a future phase item.) I might split the above requirement as follows:

Req #	Description	Phase	Comments
39	Retrieve utilization information from deviceA	N/A	Will retrieve every 30 minutes
39.1	Retrieve memory utilization	1
39.2	Retrieve disk utilization	Future

Tip: Carefully number each requirement and sub-requirement, and never change the number of a particular requirement. If you need to delete requirement number 46, don’t renumber the requirements, or ongoing discussions will quickly get confusing. It’s fine to have a gap between requirement number 45 and requirement number 47.

The Functional Spec should also contain a discussion of schedules and important milestones.

Tip: As you go back and forth with the client on the functional spec and the requirements matrix, it helps to keep a revision history so that people can quickly see if there have been any changes since the last time they looked at the document, who made the changes and when, and what the changes affect. Here is a sample revision history that I usually use; I put it on the page immediately following the title page. It’s just a table containing the author, date and description of each revision, and it can be inserted into the (e.g. Microsoft Word) document containg the project functional spec. Keep the revision history on its own page; that way it can be ripped out once the final version of the document is ready to be handed to all parties concerned.

Date	Author(s)	Description
May 14, 2005	Ray Lightman	Initial Draft
May 27, 2005	Ray Lightman, Sammy Sidekick	Changed section 3.2 – utilization retrieval – based on discussions with Acme Corp.

While emailing back and forth various versions of documents, it is easy to lose track of which version is the latest. Always keep only 1 copy of any document, and store it in a shared directory or folder. All changes must be made to that master copy. All emails contain only a pointer to the document, not the document itself. Good organizational skills are invaluable here.

Tip: Involve a senior Architect or a researcher early in order to determine technical feasibility and to give the architect/researcher a jump start on understanding the big picture. (You may play the role of the architect yourself in small companies.) However, don’t invest too much time on designing something before the contract is signed.

In this phase, you must NEGOTIATE. Negotiate objectives, success criteria, assumptions, milestones and schedules. The client may insist that their own QA (Quality Assurance) team test and validate your deliverables at intermediate milestones. This can be a huge time drain, and you should try to negotiate down. For example, you may try to persuade the client to reduce the number of intermediate checks to zero or a small number. Instead of letting their QA team actually run your code and validate it, you may be able to get the client to accept detailed designs of sub-components (algorithms and flow charts that your developers are already producing for their own benefit).

Now that you’ve successfully negotiated requirements, it’s time to formulate a project plan.

Project Management Tips: How to be a good Project Manager?

Is project management an art or a science? How do I deal with problem employees? How can I improve employee morale and boost productivity? What skills can I develop that will ensure that my projects will run smoothly and to a successful finish. This essay tries to answer these questions, drawing from lessons I have learnt on the job. While the examples I provide are from a software company perspective, most of the article applies to any kind of domain. Being a Project Manager, I have found, calls upon 5 different sets of skills:

• A. Organizational skills
• B. Communication skills
• C. Problem-solving skills
• D. Leadership skills
• E. Team-building skills

A. Organizational skills

Do you consider yourself an organized person who can generate and keep track of multiple documents? If so, you already have one of the most important skills needed as a Project Manager. On the job, I was called upon to keep track of requirements and design documents, contracts, schedules, personnel records, project reports, communication (email) records, hiring history, meetings and status reports. Luckily for me, I have always been a meticulous record-keeper (since I don’t trust my memory :)), and this saved me from being overwhelmed.

B. Communication skills

This does not refer to just giving presentations, but to various forms of written and oral communication. A Project Manager is expected to produce high-quality project planning and design documents, and send out meeting agendas, updates, status reports and courteous and effective email. A good manager, I observed from my peers, is able to get his/her ideas across clearly and in a non-confrontational manner, without seeming to impose views on subordinates. This is a skill I am still learning. Good negotiation skills also fall into this category.

C. Problem-solving skills

A good manager has the knack of seeing the big picture for any problem, while others may miss the forest for the trees. I was frequently called upon to analyze a problem, research and compile a list of alternative solutions, determine the best course of action and get it implemented by my team. The trick is to never lose sight of the big picture – the overall problem we are trying to solve.

D. Leadership skills

This one is not easy. It is tricky to get your team to go with your idea without making them feel that the idea is being thrust on them. The team looks to the Project Manager to provide direction and vision. To be able to do that, I had to work constantly towards enhancing my knowledge – breadth of knowledge is very important, but depth is important too – superficial knowledge fools noone. A manager must earn the respect of his/her team, and the best way to do that is to lead by example.

E. Team-building skills

This is an often-neglected area, forgotten in all the excitement of project deadlines. But the effort spent motivating a team to perform to the best of its ability is worth its weight in gold. Four easy points to remember are: reward achievements, provide feedback, recognize strengths and provide challenges.

 

Instead of talking in generalities, let us follow the lifecycle of a project step by step, and see how these skills come into play. A Project Manager is involved in all of the following 5 phases of a project.

• Phase 1: Scoping the project
• Phase 2: Planning the project
• Phase 3: Launching the plan
• Phase 4: Monitoring progress
• Phase 5: Wrapping up the project