10.19 Optimizing Time, Cost, Function, and Quality

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Optimization, in general, should be a mantra of the project team. Finding ways to cut delivery times and costs and improve functionality and quality are all desirable aspects that are often attainable. The key thing project leaders need to remember is that opportunity is always presenting itself to do things better. Take advantage of every opportunity to refine processes, reduce cost, and so on. This is easy to say, but how does a project leader know when such opportunities present themselves?

The answer is often found by asking questions—lots of questions. The best advice I could give any project leader is to question everything, and I do mean everything. Do not accept that something is the way it is presented without asking why. A person will often do it that way because he or she knows of no other way or because that is how it has always been done. By asking questions, you are challenging basic assumptions; the answers that follow are often enough to force a rethink of the whole process. That someone is an SME in a given area does not mean you cannot engage that person by challenging him to explain why he is doing what he does. I have often seen people start to answer questions, only to light up and say something like, “You know, maybe we could do this instead, and it would help . . .”

When looking at costs, be sure to challenge vendors to lower their costs for everything. They certainly will not volunteer to do so, and you will quickly learn that if you do not ask, they will not volunteer. I once talked a software vendor down from $21 million to less than $7 million for an enterprise package by never being satisfied with their pricing and continually telling them I was searching for alternatives to their product. Never mind that their product was the core piece of our ERP and CRM systems, and that it would have cost me a lot more to replace their system with anything else. The fact that they believed they were not going to get any business forced them to make concessions they never dreamed possible. Wizardly advice–vendors can be quite creative and responsive when pushed a bit.

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