A Consulting Partner needs to really only do two things well:
1. Deeply understand requirements.
2. Execute well.
Any Partner worth their salt will find (2) easy. There is Trailhead, mentorship and various programmes and websites out there which will hone your hard skills and raise competence around how to build and develop software well.
But (1)? I _know_ many projects suffer from challenges, where disputes are focused on mismatch of expectations of what requirements mean, and what’s in scope (or out), as opposed to how well a particular user story has been implemented.
Of course, sometimes you get projects where QA has been under-scoped, and you may find bugs abound during testing, but that’s a post for another time.
So, how would one ‘deeply’ understand requirements?
It takes good listening skills, as well as a highly developed social awareness so that you can read the feel and energy of stakeholders during workshops, get a sense of how things are moving by body language.
Are they excited about what’s coming up?
Or do they appear reticent, and unwilling to participate wholly?
Do they ‘get’ what you’re trying to convey?
Or are there blank faces all around?
Emotional intelligence is key, as is keen observation.
Do it right from the start. This is something you will not regret.
#onthepeiroll
#requirementsgathering
#salesforce