How I dealt with stakeholder conflict…and got stung badly in the process 😬

Part 1: The story of my experience that taught me my greatest professional learning

A learning so powerful, that I would slot it at #1 among all the learnings I’ve had in my 21-year long career.

The Background

Back in 2010, I worked for a large IT Consulting firm in Bangalore, India (duh! 🙄)

I found myself leading a large team of Business Analysts for a project we were executing for a F100 company.

I had to move to Minneapolis for this project. “A 5-year assignment.”, is what I was told.

‘Move’ = shutting down my family’s and my life as we knew in India, and restarting in the US: kids’ school, wife’s job, house, car, bank account, our social life, the works…all of it.

All these restart activities happen in parallel to working on the ‘high-profile’ project, which I was well aware of. I was prepared for it. Or so I thought. 😞

The Key Stakeholders

The project began with a meeting with the sponsor.

It was clear from the beginning who the sponsor of this project was. It was the head of IT. Let’s call this person KF.

Like all sponsors, KF owned the budget allocated for this project, and was was responsible for timely delivery of the solution. For us, this meant that KF is our SPOC for invoice approvals and payments.

There was a second critical stakeholder — the business owner. Let’s call this person ES.

ES was one of the Directors on the business side. ES owned the solution scope, and its releases. For us, this meant that ES was our SPOC for project plan and requirements sign-offs.

Typically in most projects sponsor and business owner are the same person. But here, even though they were different people, the upfront assumption was that the division of responsibilities (or powers) between the sponsor and business owner is quite clear.

Boy, were we wrong! 😳

The Beginnings

We began the project earnestly.

We? The Enterprise Architect, whom we will address as KS. The Program Manager, MO. And I, the Business Analyst.

We validated the business requirements and then discovered the stakeholder requirements.

We then developed the release plan. The first release to arrive about 6 months hence, and subsequent six releases were to arrive in roughly 4 to 5 months intervals thereafter.

Next step: to present the release plan to ES.

ES loved the plan. He asked a few questions. He ensured that we had factored time and effort for any changes that might emerge. He was happy to sign off.

Subsequent step: to present an invoice/payment plan to KF. The Client Account Manager, SJ, from our company presented the plan to KF.

Before SJ even uttered a word, KF said, “Let’s review the release plan.”

WTF?

We looked at each other, puzzled. 😐

We presented the release plan to KF.

He looked at it and said, “This release plan is Bu** S**t. I want you to go back to your drawing board and get me a plan for a monthly release.”

SJ tried to mention that ES had already approved the release plan, but to no avail. We were already dismissed from the meeting.

With no choice, we reworked the release plan. We changed the execution methodology to an iterative model. We could easily deliver monthly releases. We had a mature team on this project.

KF was pleased. “Now you’re talking. Gentlemen, we are a go.”, he grinned.

The Rumblings

But ES, not so much. He said, “Why did you change the plan? It was approved, wasn’t it? I had approved the release plan.” 😠

I updated him that KF wanted a monthly release.

ES protested, “How is the release plan any of KF’s business? I want you to revert to the earlier approved plan. Am I clear?” 😡

We were feeling the rumblings.

Who’s the boss?

KF heard of ES’s insistence on the earlier release plan.

He made it very clear to us who the boss was. He said, “Listen, I am the sponsor for this project. I make the decisions. I call the shots. Monthly release plan it is. That’s it.”

It was ES’s move now. He said, “He might be the boss. But I ain’t gonna sign-off of the release plan nor the requirements. Let’s see how we make progress.”

We were stuck in between a conflict turning into a full fledged ego war between two top stakeholders of our project. 😨😰

Our Response

Here’s the part that brings some clarity to the title of this article.

We discussed internally and decided to take a step back.

We said, “Hey KF. ES. We’re not going to be able to make progress in this atmosphere of uncertainty. May we request the both of you to please clarify things amongst yourselves and bring us some clarity. Until then, we’re here. But we advise taking a pause.”

KF said, “I think what you say is reasonable. It is safe to say that ES and I both agree on this. Let’s pause. I will let you know when to resume.”

Seems reasonable, right? We thought out stance would catalyse KF and ES to work things out.

Oh! Were we farther from the truth!! 😬😬

Their Response

KF invited us to a meeting.

He said, “Listen folks, I took this matter up the flag pole. Here is the deal. The CEO has asked us to scrap the project.”

SCRAP THE PROJECT! 🤯🤯

“She has asked us to submit to her a business case and resume the project only upon the approval of the business case.”, he concluded.

WHAT? THERE WAS NO BUSINESS CASE? HOLY COW!! 😱😱😱

How did this project move along even as far as it did without an approved business case?

The Consequence

The project was scrapped. 😫😫

I was back in Bangalore in less than 5 months, not 5 years. Back to shutting down and restarting life all over again. It seems to me like I suffered the most in this entire fiasco.

The Ponder

Here’s a point to ponder.

Was I in some way a contributor to how the events turned up as it did? Did I do my job right?

Let me know your views in the comments. In the next part of this blog, I will share my views.