The largest variable we do not control
Two clients with the same budget and the same brief get different outcomes, and a substantial share of the difference is on the client side.
This is not about being demanding or accommodating. It is about removing the friction that turns a ten-week project into a sixteen-week one.
1. One person who can decide
Not a committee, and not a sponsor who reads reports. Someone with authority to answer “what should happen when an order arrives for an out-of-stock product on a Friday afternoon” without convening anything.
They need about half a day a week. If nobody can commit that, the project is under-resourced on your side and it will show.
2. Answers within a day or two
The single strongest predictor of a project finishing on time is how fast the client answers questions. Unanswered questions become assumptions, assumptions become rework, and rework becomes delay.
If you cannot answer quickly, say so and give a date. Silence causes the damage, not the delay.
3. Real data, early
A copy of your actual records, anonymised if needed, including the awkward ones. Test data invented for testing is always well behaved and finds nothing.
Also: third-party API credentials requested in week one, before they are needed. It is the item most likely to sit on somebody else's desk and it is free to start early.
4. Attendance and real feedback
- Turn up to the fortnightly demonstration
- Click things yourself rather than watching a scripted walkthrough
- Bring the people who will use it, not only the sponsor
- Say what is wrong now rather than at the end
What to expect from us in return
Working software every fortnight, bad news early with options attached, changes priced rather than absorbed and resented, documentation as a deliverable, and a willingness to tell you when you are asking for the wrong thing.
If you are doing your part and not getting these, raise it directly and early. It is nearly always fixable while there is still time.