Common Understanding
There is a big difference between finishing a project and releasing a project. This may be an obvious statement but it’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way recently when there was a misunderstanding that occurred between me and my technical contact. When I asked when is a realistic time to get a finished product out the answer was week 22. In his mind this meant that development would be finished, in my mind it meant that I could schedule a release on this week. We both made assumptions as to what was meant by a finished product and in the end this meant that I had to reschedule the release of the product one week later than expected, which no-one is ever happy with.
Communication is a key element in releasing any project successfully. I’m certain that anyone who has been in team project knows this, if the communication fails then the project fails. The problem is that failure in communication is not always easy to spot. In the example I gave above it was clear to both parties what the finish date was, however because both of us assumed our own definition on what it meant to have a finished product the communication failed and the project was delayed one week.
The point is, that when defining aspects of a project with another person, be that a technical decision, business decision or whatever, it has to be clear that all parties understand the same thing and that no assumptions are made as to the definition.
