The Expert Who Is Angry about Previous Project Failures

Unfortunately, many software development projects have failed. A large established organization may have tens if not hundreds of project failures in its history. In most of these projects, there was at least one SME who was interviewed and involved with the project. You may meet people who were involved in several of these projects. They may be angry because they haven’t seen many successes. Try to put yourself in an angry SME’s shoes. The SME was assigned to a new project and initially was enthusiastic about it, spending time with a BA or developer to carefully explain his or her business processes. The SME patiently answered questions, made suggestions, and reviewed requirements documents and design documents. The project may have even made its way to the testing phase. And then, for one reason or another, the project was canceled or the software developed didn’t look at all like the SME expected it to. All that work and time, wasted. Then, a new project is started and the SME does it all over again. You couldn’t blame an SME who dreads a new project with a new BA knocking on the door asking for a description of his or her business. “Describe my business! I’ve already done that several times! Didn’t you people write anything down? Don’t you all talk to each other? Why bother? You never listen anyway. If by some small chance the software actually gets developed, it never does what I want it to do! Why should I bother?”

Good question. You can’t blame a business person for being angry. IT departments have not done a good job of developing software that actually benefits the end user.

How do you start up a dialogue and relationship with this angry SME? First of all, search for any notes/documents/plans from previous projects so that you don’t have to start from scratch. If you can find some of the previous work, the SME will at least feel like someone listened to him or her on the last project. Another important part of your initial conversation with this SME requires you to show empathy and regret for all of those previous failures. Even though they were not your fault, from the SME’s perspective you represent the group of people who failed, and he or she wants to hear that your group is sorry about the wasted time and the frustration. This is a critical step in getting past this anger. It doesn’t cost you anything to apologize. All you have to say is: “I know that you have worked on similar projects in the past that have failed. I am very sorry that your time was wasted. We have learned from those failures and are hoping that you will help us again, using our new approach. As the BA, I am your advocate, and my job is to make sure that your business needs are met on this project. I will be working with the solution team to make sure that they understand what you need and that they design and build it correctly.” Apologizing and taking responsibility for the source of the SME’s anger and frustration will disarm the person. The SME may be able to let go of his or her anger simply because you have listened to him or her. Once you get past this, your interactions with the SME will be much easier.