Balancing client demands with technical limitations: How can you ensure successful project delivery?

There’s a difference between nirvana, wishes and immediate needs. As a consultant you need to have a roadmap to success. Time, technology, resources, knowledge, data, processes and adoption need to be aligned. For example: It may be the customer’s wish to have all tickets routed by location, however if there is no source data from like an IPAM system telling you where something is located then there ate steps and requirements necessary to be done before that’s accomplished. Point is it isn’t that it cant be done, it is that they are not ready for that outcome. So it’s your job to explain the prerequisites and the maturity map to get them to that desired outcome. Sometimes there interim work-arounds that can manually be inserted.

I’m not a believer in technical boundaries, for most things. As a system thinker limitations are controlled by humans, in general. What I mean is someone is trying to fit it into a toolset, a budget, the data, a time constraint, or with the talent they have available. Look, many times customers see a smoke & mirrors demo built in lala land and think i want that, or some sales team has a quota and said yes it can do X, or they go to a conference/webinar and hear about nirvana and futures then sign up to do these things. Most have no foundation in a real enterprise and take a lot work to build the backend. Point is be truthful as to what is needed and you wont get into this area! I haven’t had this issue because I’m honest.

So first be honest that you haven’t done that solution within a toolset. It is best and a Win-Win to do a POC. Try a sampling and see if it accomplishes the dream. Example if the want to pull data from some odd metadata location and use it in analytics to understand future expenses. Then agree on a small sample and how it should be fused into the report. There will be a bulk of this POC that is reusable and many lessons learned that will help the customer and you understand the rollout, time, cost, learning and adoption. Worse thing is to pretend you know it all and then your plans and lack of experience get the project underwater, out of control, over budget and so on. As a customer this should be a warning sign, but not always.

I first make sure I have a clear understanding of the client’s priorities and expectations. I communicate openly about any technical constraints, ensuring they know what’s feasible and what might need adjustments. By breaking the project into manageable phases, I can focus on delivering key features first while setting realistic timelines for more complex elements. Regular updates and collaborative problem-solving also help ensure we're on the same page. If any challenges arise, I offer alternative solutions that align with their goals, ensuring the project is delivered successfully while managing both expectations and limitations effectively.

I don’t think “CLEAR” is the correct term here. Everyone believes they are clear and precise when they communicate; that’s not it! Here’s what i mean: if you ask everyone in the room to define what an “event” is , in relationship to IT Operations. I promise you will get tons of answers and probably none will match yours. This is because everyone’s background, experience, and culture varies. So, never ever assume when a customer says “i need X done” you know what’s in their vision/head/dream. It is your job to ask all the questions as the customer explains their vision. If the customer says “I want to track all my assets”. That’s of no help! What is it they envision they will get out if this? This sets the tone you need!

When you ask all the right questions and you and the customer are not keeping secrets, risks should be low with any implementation. This changes when customer don’t inform you about changes, misrepresent the current state (intentionally or not), don’t participate and don’t adopt or want everything to remain as it is. Likewise the consultant has to be well versed and experienced to help steer things. More often I see great presales and architects sell a customer on a solution that delivery has zero experience delivering. But if delivery doesn’t speak up and say HELP then everything and everybody is at risk. Speak the truth! Learning and gaining knowledge is good and shouldn’t be a negative.