I’m going through a brutal RFP process right now, asking unreasonable things of a lot of smart companies. Happens all the time, right? The difference is in how the vendor responds in that situation. I’ve done them the courtesy of laying everything out on the table with my budget and timelines, and sent requirements docs that, while not a full set of user stories, are pretty good high level requirements with plenty of business context.

The vendors who are impressing me are the ones who ask for more details about the product, or show me that they’ve actually read what I sent them by giving me some insight into how they are thinking of tackling the challenge. The vendors who are wasting my time are the ones who respond by blathering on about their fabulous Agile processes while not actually making an effort to understand what I’m trying to accomplish.

Here’s an unsolicited tip: Your unique Agile process may be great for your internal workflow and efficiency, but I don’t care about them. Show me some smart thinking about the challenge I’m proposing to pay you to meet, including how you’ve met similar challenges for others. And please God, if you’ve promised me a proposal and come to the call without that proposal because you didn’t have your shit together, please do not waste even more of my time droning on about your unique processes, and then asking to connect on LinkedIn.

Rant::End