3.9 Review with Customer and Beneficiaries

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Neglecting to engage your customer and beneficiaries in technology design reviews can be politically suicidal. If you accept that as a basic rule, then the real issue is timing. If you wait too long, the beneficiary will probably be annoyed at being kept out of the loop. If that happens, you can expect them to raise objections, some of which may be red herrings (i.e., false). If you approach beneficiaries before your plan is adequately vetted, you have given them the opportunity to poke holes in it, and then you face a credibility battle that can be tough to win.

A related consequence of premature disclosure is beneficiaries seizing the opportunity to sneak requirements into your plan, and begin driving you. This is where a lot of scope creep comes from, by the way. Although you need to form a partnership with these people, if the balance of power shifts their way, your ability to manage the project is significantly weakened. Chapter 13 covers this complex subject in more detail.

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