On Inheriting Someone Else's Mess: Lessons Learned from a Rescue Project

We are all familiar with the story—massive project, naive client, overly ambitious developer.  Too often, it turns into a tragedy, with the client investing wasted dollars, energy, and time into a stalled or failed project.  As development shops, we do our best to avoid inheriting these scenarios, because the risks and responsibility are real.  Client fatigue, budgetary limitations, unreasonable expectations, and bad code would seem to doom an engagement before it even begins.  But is it possible to transform a failing project and make it work for both the client and the vendor?

In this session, we will be exploring how to set all parties up for success.  For clients, we will discuss how clients can approach new vendors, what information vendors need to feel confident about the project, and what expectations and responsibilities they should have.  For vendors, we will talk about practical ways to mitigate risk, to inspire clients to think differently, to help clients understand when to scrap and rebuild or work with what they have, and to manage stakeholder relationships.