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I did this on my first real consulting gig on a state contract. We were on a roll kicking ass working 10-12 hour days and we blew through the requirements in t

I did this on my first real consulting gig on a state contract. We were on a roll kicking ass working 10-12 hour days and we blew through the requirements in the first deliverable a month early. When you're going like that you don't want to stop. Rather than taking it in and showing them. The lead decided that we should just start in on the second deliverable. We busted out most of the work there before the meeting began regarding the first deliverable. When we went in to the meeting we were shocked to see that everyone who had written up the requirements had quit and moved on to other jobs. The task had fallen to other employees who wanted to completely change the direction of the application. While the first deliverable did not change. All the work we had done on the second was worthless. After that I never again worked 12 hour days while on schedule and I never again did anything ahead of schedule that wasn't a 100% sure thing.

otoburb 13y ago
It would have been fine to get the first deliverable done early. I'm confused why the lead (or whoever was responsible for invoicing and managing the customer relationship) didn't invoice right away. The team still could have gone ahead with the second deliverable "at-risk" (i.e. on the assumption that the customer still wants the next deliverable). The key failure point here was the touchpoint with the customer and the invoicing. If there was no payment trigger/invoice for the first deliverable, that only emphasizes the importance of the customer checkpoint. Usually, the project manager (sometimes known as the engagement manager in other shops) is responsible for this. That person failed the buyer, your organization, and your team.
- gnarbarian 13y ago
  I don't really understand why it went down like that either. It was the lead/PMs first job with the company and mine too. He may have been concerned with losing face or he wanted to finish the whole project super early and possibly get a bonus because it was fixed bid. The requirements doc was extremely clear and robust. We felt confident that we were on the right track. Regardless I pestered him to schedule a meeting right away. After two weeks he relented but it took us another two weeks just to get in there due to people leaving at the state, general confusion over there and I assume them spending time rewriting the second deliverable. There are a number of things we could have done to avoid the grief on our end. 1) We definitely should have made a greater effort to get in there as soon as we were done with the first deliverable. 2) we could have not burned ourselves out working 12s in the first place on salary and finished about at the right time when they were ready for us. 3) After finishing early we could have taken the equivalent time off instead of trying to power through the second deliverable. (not getting ahead of ourselves or burning us out) We ultimately delivered the project within the time constraints of the estimate (a miracle considering we lost almost a month). although not including the OT we spent initially. So the client was happy but our team's morale never quite recovered.

otoburb 13y ago

It would have been fine to get the first deliverable done early. I'm confused why the lead (or whoever was responsible for invoicing and managing the customer relationship) didn't invoice right away. The team still could have gone ahead with the second deliverable "at-risk" (i.e. on the assumption that the customer still wants the next deliverable). The key failure point here was the touchpoint with the customer and the invoicing. If there was no payment trigger/invoice for the first deliverable, that only emphasizes the importance of the customer checkpoint. Usually, the project manager (sometimes known as the engagement manager in other shops) is responsible for this. That person failed the buyer, your organization, and your team.

gnarbarian 13y ago
I don't really understand why it went down like that either. It was the lead/PMs first job with the company and mine too. He may have been concerned with losing face or he wanted to finish the whole project super early and possibly get a bonus because it was fixed bid. The requirements doc was extremely clear and robust. We felt confident that we were on the right track. Regardless I pestered him to schedule a meeting right away. After two weeks he relented but it took us another two weeks just to get in there due to people leaving at the state, general confusion over there and I assume them spending time rewriting the second deliverable. There are a number of things we could have done to avoid the grief on our end. 1) We definitely should have made a greater effort to get in there as soon as we were done with the first deliverable. 2) we could have not burned ourselves out working 12s in the first place on salary and finished about at the right time when they were ready for us. 3) After finishing early we could have taken the equivalent time off instead of trying to power through the second deliverable. (not getting ahead of ourselves or burning us out) We ultimately delivered the project within the time constraints of the estimate (a miracle considering we lost almost a month). although not including the OT we spent initially. So the client was happy but our team's morale never quite recovered.