Interdum pluribus donari puto, propter melius phrase, iuvenes-puer requisita. Finem user vere, pessime amet velit certis, vel a ipsum speciei diribitio structura vel ad interficiam de unum click vel menu bene lenire navigationem vel [inserere vehe tenuit opinio quod fit ad esse iniuriam]. Ut SharePoint pro scriptor, nos potest plerumque occursum prope genus exigentiam cum suggestu, sed de eis, nos scire in corde quod:
- Num sunt proportionata quantum ad effectum deducendi (et ergo constant magis)
- Sunt ad esse altus consuetudinem et ergo difficile ad esse et troubleshoot
- Est est facile SharePoint adventu occurrit 80% vel de exigentiam (i.e. occurrit Spirtus de exigentiam, non hac epistola)
Imo linea, Scimus "arcu", ut vere iustus a mauris vel aliqua iusta, sed quod populus vivere cum magis quam consumere multum tempus conatur ad "solvere."
Puto de his ut "puerum" requisita quia vidi hoc exemplar multis ante. Haedos marcescent et caballum te nova LUDIBRIUM hebdomades ad tempus. Te eos in LUDIBRIUM, ludo et cum dies aliquot horas aut stilo, numquam ad colligunt illud rursus. Aut, non adepto LUDIBRIUM, in iugiter clausuris et hedum movet in fieri Praeses liberum mundi. Mauris fermentum id in SharePoint. Arbitrium fabri aut adepto quod volunt et fit insolita aut underused munus vel non adepto quod volunt et project adhuc succedit usquam.
Ego admonitus quod hodie in a forum post et probaverunt quam Clayton Cobb Fusce in forum ad repellendum temptaverunt de huiuscemodi rebus: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointinfopath/thread/af8a1941-92ad-4f1a-b1bf-875e28ea79b7/
Sum vere curiosus quam populus considerandam hunc et quomodo agere. Sum ego absentis punctum? Tibi consilia ad iuvencum iudiciis fabri a overinvesting in levia requisita? Placere relinquere a comment.
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Sequi me in Twitter ad http://www.twitter.com/pagalvin
My past experience tells me that you are correct: The desperately needed requirement is often quickly discarded, usually because it is not well thought through. I agree that it is our job as consultants to help steer the client towards a successful solution, not just fulfilling a requirement.
Autem: We don’t understand our clients’ business as well as they do. It’s important that, as consultants, we don’t become arrogant, telling the client that their requirement is unneccessary. Ita, we have a bit of a tightrope to walk: Help the client think through the resons for a requirement; explain why you would like to suggest another course and offer alternatives. Verbigratia, offer to start with a simple solution which can be enhanced later if it turns out not to meet the need.
As with most things in life, finding the right balance can be tricky, but is worth the investment.
-Ruven
Great point, Ruven. There is a fine line. I personally tend to “give in” rather than take a hard line. It always makes me uncomfortable when someone pushes back against client requirements twice and three or more times.
I almost always follow the “simple solution” approach you describe. I can’t actually think of one instance where it didn’t work out best in the end.
I generally agree with this post Paul. In facto, I catch myself often saying to people “SharePoint can do anything you want it to do except what YOU want it to do.” I often try to find simple out of the box methods to solve an end users business need. As much as I love and enjoying developing solutions in SharePoint I’d rather try something simple and out of the box first.
Most times this lands up being enough and other times it generates a new idea for them that will make building a custom solution better for them.
Magnum praesidium.
Paulus Liebrand
Aliquam: @PaulLiebrand
I have to deal with these requests very frequently. Luckily, often the business will acknowledge the request is a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than a ‘need’.
When it isn’t clear I start with asking what they are trying to solve with the request. That typically catches items that they simply didn’t recognize as a nice-to-have initially. Then I move on to evaluate what they are asking to determine if it is actually something simple or not; and what the impact scope is like (such as is this a change to a single sub-site or to the whole farm).
The greater the impact scope, the greater number of questions I raise. If the answers do not sound like a true need, but are still focused on acting like it is a need, then I present the time/cost and whatever impact that may be associated with the request.
If the business still wants me to go forward, I do, but we all have a much more clear picture of what is changing.
I’m new to your site but follow you on EndUserSharePoint. I work for a military hospital and know what everyone is talking about when it comes to “Can Do” and “Should Do”. I get this almost every day and the “Can SharePoint make documents not printable? Can we take away the ‘send to’ option?” The department would like to have some documents view only (no problem, done) because of the numbering and tracking system for the documents. I’ve been searching different blogs and sites and can’t find the answer. Hope someone can help.
Paulus:
I think that the push back, or at least the discussion about the real utility of things, is what separates real SharePoint Professionals from plain developers. We can all make SharePoint do this stuff, like hiding the “View All site Content” link even though most people don’t see it anyway. It’s our job to help the client (internal or external, it doesn’t make a difference) understand which bits in SharePoint really are useful and why, why some UI things may actually be detrimental, etc. We ought to know better than they do and that is what we are paid for. If we simply acquiesce to every demand, then we’re only giving 50% at most.
Gratiae pro stipes!
M.
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HI,
Thanks for the post and asking everyone to leave a comment for his experience, In these situations i used to give both option to the client, There is an easy to build/fast solution which gives you almost what you need but not 100% ( from performance, look and feel, maintainability..etc) and there is another custom solution that gives you what you want, present an estimate for both solutions and Cost associated to it, and then usually if the custom solution cost is higher they used to say let’s go with almost what we need :). Unless what they want is really affects the process and a highly demanded feature. I usually expect on those meetings someone will jump in and start discussing why ? and for your experience with the product you can convince him Why and How long will it take?
Spero is succurro.