Delivering Products Vs Projects

In a previous blog, we talked about how organizations are striving to transform the way they do their business digitally. For them to successfully change, they need systems that serve the different functions their businesses operate on.

So, after identifying what system is required to facilitate this digital transformation for a function within the organization, and the team that will be building this system, putting a plan in action for delivery is required.

If we take a typical scenario of how delivering a system would look like, we would first have two teams; the business or function owner who wants the system, and the IT Service Provider providing that system.

These teams meet several times, in the beginning, to capture and document all the requirements, put together a scope of work, and agree on a framework and project timelines for delivering the system or “product.”  Once the project kicks off, it will go through all the defined phases and eventually gets signed off when the product is presented to the customer, and user acceptance testing is conducted successfully.

An ideal scenario is one where the product being delivered meets the exact (and full) requirements of the customer, so sign off comes quickly and with no issues. But in reality, with projects that span a long time, they tend to have some everyday challenges such as:

1. The customer has to wait for a long time to see the final product, so they have no visibility as to what the actual system will look like until the time of delivery
2. When the final product is delivered, the customer has feedback that can result in redoing the work, costing more money, effort, and issues for both teams involved

This is why we need to shift our thinking from delivering projects to delivering products. If we can convince customers of the value of an MVP “Minimum Viable Product,” they will quickly come to realize the benefits of such an approach as opposed to traditional product development and delivery.

With an MVP, customers will be able to:

1. See an actual working product- with sufficient basic features- to satisfy their curiosity
2. Test the product early on and not have to wait until the end of the project to test its features and functionalities
3. Give feedback at an early stage to allow for enhancements or modifications to be done to the product before development continues

I’m sure if we tell our customers that we can deliver to them a product with basic features in a brief period for them to see, test and give their feedback on, we will notice an increased success rate in our product and project delivery, and most importantly in customer satisfaction.

If we take the example of an organization that wants to transform by automating their business processes digitally, then the Enterprise Submission Platform – ESP- can be an excellent fit for them.

ESP has been designed in a smart way to give customers the ability to create workflows and processes in as little time possible (it can be done in under 5 minutes). Therefore, for this organization to have a working system that is capable of automating business processes in a short time, and can also do the important job for them, then they are already better off than having to wait until the final product is delivered. And if they need customizations and enhancements to be done to the platform for it to fit their exact and specific requirements, then this can be done in phases or releases, all the while giving them the ability to see and use it.

Visit www.exceeders.com/store/esp  to learn more.