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ShopTalk: Three Cheers for King Canute!

C-level executives always want to know how long a project will take, but they dont always like the answer.

By George Grieve | Updated on April 12, 2013

If I had a buck for every time I’ve had this conversation I could take my wife to Starbucks and really splurge.  I meet with the executive of a prospective client to discuss their soon-to-start legacy replacement project and we talk all around the main issues—resources, split of work between vendor and in-house staff, possible use of third party help, how to measure business outcomes, how not to saddle the project with so many other “related” initiatives that it will be in danger of sinking from its own weight. 

Finally a “C” level somebody asks, “So, how long will this take?”  Silence descends like a guillotine.  The room becomes still.  “C” levels and minions alike gaze at me like I’m a laboratory specimen. But this is why I am here.  This is my job.  In journalism they call it “speaking truth to power.”  In my line of work it’s called “getting real.” 

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