Business - Success

Any successful transaction relies on the following:

  1. Clearly defining the product or service to be delivered
  2. Understanding what it costs to deliver it
  3. Doing the work well

Easy mistakes:

  • Optimism - unrealistic agreements
  • Scope creep - allowing the product or service to change beyond what can be absorbed by the cost of delivery
  • Pursuit of perfection - failing to limit the delivery to what was agreed upon in an effort to do an outstanding job at the expense of the provider
  • Incompetence - inability of the provider to deliver due to lack of skill
  • Poor cost control - this begins with the estimate or price. It must reflect the actual cost to deliver the product or server. Through the entire project, those costs must be tracked to keep the project within the budget and provide data for future projects
  • Team failure - Failure of the team to work cohesively