Based on our experience, nobody can do without prompt and constant communication with the customer in the development. Communication between the developer and the customer is always a problem of time. On the one hand, both sides are extremely busy and hardly pulling their time management. On the other hand, successful development requires strict adherence to the plan, does not tolerate deadlines for approvals and feedback.

Communication

At the same time, communication itself eats up a lot of working hours. In almost any business, managers can tell stories of how diverse rallies begin to quietly eat up most of the workday. In working with overseas customers, this can overlap with the time zone problem. Let’s say a US customer wants to ask urgent questions during his office hours, and a contractor’s representative this side of the Atlantic is asleep. Communication without convenient time management is a great way to fail a development. In search of the best model for such management, we have filled a lot of “bumps” in due time.

How to ensure the client’s involvement in the project, solve the problem of time, put out fires in time and cope with their harmful consequences? 

Is it desirable to achieve this without wasting resources and staff nerves? Through trial and error, we concluded that the best way is to assign a personal manager to each customer. He is ready to close any questions about the project 24/7 and provide the fastest possible feedback.

This is an atypical solution that solves a lot of problems. It is the personal manager who is deeply involved in communication who is the best “firefighter”, can establish time management that is acceptable to everyone and maintain the customer’s involvement in development. It is the personal manager who will be the best to speak the language understandable to the customer – about decisions, deadlines and money, without tiresome technical details. This usually does not mean that our project managers are chronically awake at night and live exclusively on strong espresso. Most of the potentially problematic issues are resolved on a routine basis.