Is the customer really the weakest link?

Is the customer really the weakest link?

This morning I read a remarkable post on the Computable- website. "Customer is weakest link in ICT projects" was the title of the piece. It appears that the Catholic University of Mechelen has conducted an investigation showing that the customer plays an important role in the failure of an ICT project. The title made believe it was worse than it really is, but there is certainly a core of truth in it. But whether the customer is really the weakest link…

In the investigation "An exploration of the failure and success of IT projects – Review with project managers" researchers Ruben and Dave Callewaert have made a list of fourteen categories of factors contributing to the failure of an ICT project. Off course on off the factors is often poor project management. In addition, there are a number customer-factors that play an important role: problems with the goal descriptions, lack of support by management, changing requirements and problems in communication.

These are all things which are extremely important to the success of an ICT (or Internet) project. And these components should be very well-managed by the project manager. I believe that the project management of a project is the key to success.

A customer can be a ‘weak’ link, but certainly not the weakest. A project manager must ensure that a customer is protected  "against himself”.

Each of the four aforementioned factors are written ‘ to the customer ‘ accounts. But there is indeed a great responsibility for the contractor in each of those points. The contractor is the expert when it comes to this kind of implementations, not  the customer.

Is the goal description not sufficient? Then the contractor must respond and make it clear that a clear description of the purpose is important. Is there no support from the management? The contractor should be able to calculate this risk and take measures against it. Are the requirements changing a lot? That is absolutely not so crazy. A customer ‘learns’ during the process and therefore the requirements should be adjusted. This may, up to a certain extent, be taken into account by being flexible with the requirements and procedures. And finally, problems in communication may not only be deposited at the customer, because when there are two communicating, two will be ‘guilty’ if there is no good communication.

Of course, a contractor can not intervene in all such matters or sometimes does not have the knowledge. The report of the researchers Malinois is now only one more proof of my idea that an external project manager actually is the key to success in Internet technologies (ICT) project…

What do you think?