Talking about how to obtain the user's signature on the official project delivery document
The formal delivery documents of the project that need to be signed and confirmed by the user are mainly the requirements specification (SRS), the change order (CR) and the user acceptance report. However, it is very difficult to obtain users for these formal deliverables:
users are reluctant to sign the requirements, which often leads to design and development for a period of time, and the requirements have not been finalized, and users are still frequently reviewing the requirements. Modifications, of course, these modifications may not count as changes!
As long as there are defects, users are reluctant to sign the acceptance report, and even after a period of trial operation, they cannot get a signature because of some defects.
Why does this happen? Signing to confirm means taking responsibility for future situations, so everyone will try their best to delay signing from a safety perspective.
We take Party A and Party B as an example to describe. Once Party A signs the demand, it means that all future adjustments to the demand will become "changes", and Party A will pay extra for these changes. As for Party B, once these signatures are confirmed, they can ask Party A to pay in an open and honest manner.
The reasons why users delay signing are even more numerous:
1. There are still problems/uncertainties in the deliverables; (Oh, it is still easy to find some small problems, the discussions between the two sides will be settled in a few weeks. 2.
The person in charge of the signature is on a business trip; (Now that the communication technology is so advanced, a business trip can also be a reason for not signing? The project is so important, isn’t it as good as a business trip? This is obviously a reason)
3. Too busy with work, no It depends on the time; (this is the obvious "drag" formula)
4. Internal personnel review is required; (you can see at a glance, this is playing the ball with the so-called internal process)
So not signing in time is a part of the process of the project Very painful thing. Is there any solution? The practice of domestic projects is very simple: let sales do it. . . The so-called deal is nothing more than entertaining, trading, pulling relationships, or asking your own leaders to come forward to coordinate and make commitments
.Under the general trend that domestic project management is becoming more and more standardized, such a method is slightly insufficient, and a new method is needed.
Method 1: The signed document is divided into zeroes. (Method effectiveness: 90%)
A requirement document contains at least dozens to hundreds of pages, and it is very difficult for users to fully sign and confirm the entire document at one time or for a period of time. The document is divided into smaller parts (such as use cases, modules or subsystems) in a systematic way, and the user only needs to sign the certain parts, while the uncertain parts are clarified and then confirmed.
How to break the document into pieces requires technology, and the entire framework needs to have clear logic and rationality.
Method 2: Bottom-up signing process. (Method effectiveness: 80%)
The person responsible for signing is often the responsible manager or leader. For them, many details may not be particularly in-depth or understood. It is difficult to force them to sign immediately, but if they see their subordinates Signing, then he will be much more at ease, and it will be easier to sign.
Method 3: Safe collective decision-making. (Method effectiveness: 70%)
A formal deliverable review is held to see if the relevant stakeholders in attendance agree with the deliverable "in principle". Please note that the word "agree in principle" is very important, it will not put too much pressure on the personnel involved in the review, and at the same time it is a resolution that sets the tone and plays a key role in the follow-up promotion.
Note: Be sure to conduct such a review again, otherwise it will be very difficult to be attacked and criticized as "full of loopholes". If key stakeholders find reasons not to participate in this meeting, if such a thing happens, it will be more difficult, and it will greatly hinder the subsequent signing process.
Method 4: Users are fully involved in the preparation of deliverables. (Method effectiveness: 60%)
In the process of writing important deliverables, fully mobilize users’ participation so that they can fully understand and participate in the whole process. Based on this side-by-side battle, users will trust each other and the common products of both parties. It is naturally easier to sign.
Note: The full participation of users is basically a matter of chance. In fact, the emphasis here is that a good personal/work relationship with the user can help to get the user's signature to some extent.
Method 5: Signature confirmation with remarks. (Method validity: 100%)
A typical signature consists of only two items: the name of the signatory and the date of the signature. The signature with remarks is more flexible. For example, the signature for an uncertain demand may be like this;
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Confirm this demand in principle, and the premise of confirmation is:
A, B, C open questions It still needs to be discussed and resolved. (open issues)
D, E, F may need tweaking. (risks)
The requirement is based on the condition G is satisfied. (assumption)
xxx (user's name)
date
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With such a signature confirmation, the overall signature process can be greatly accelerated. At the same time, these remarks are also very important information, letting us know the recent work priorities and future possible change points.
If it is a user acceptance report, an example of partial signatures may be as follows:
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Accept this requirement in principle, provided that:
the 5 defects that have not been solved at present need to be revised and tested correctly before June 30, 2010 .
If the version for 5 defects leads to other functional errors, then this acceptance and the acceptance confirmation of related functions are invalid, and the acceptance test needs to be completely re-executed.
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How to close these notes? If all the problems have been resolved in the follow-up process, you can ask the user to sign the adjusted part, or print out another copy for signature confirmation.
Method 6: Regularly track the sign-off process and escalate to higher management when appropriate. (Method effectiveness: 50%)
This method is used to deal with users who are so unreasonable and can procrastinate. Regularly tracking the signing process is actually putting the user on the hot pot in the weekly project report, and the temperature rises a little every week, until the user can't persist in the end. That's it. The user has to factor in the possibility of being liable for signing / taking responsibility for project delays due to non-signing.
Note: This trick can only be done without fault on your side, the reason is just the user's procrastination.
Method seven: customer relationship. (Method effectiveness: 80%)
User's signature means taking responsibility, and it is also a kind of power. For Party B, it is necessary to respect such power, and it is necessary to invite sales/executives to participate when necessary, especially user acceptance For the signature of the report, the above 6 methods are not enough, and the relevant person must come forward to be able to do it.
Of course, commercial business rules must be met.
With the above seven methods, when seeking user signature confirmation, it is necessary to formulate a strategy according to the actual situation, and select a suitable combination to achieve timely and effective signature confirmation.