How do you handle conflict in the team, in particular between tech and business people?

There are several approaches.  They each suit different types of problems.

So the first step is in defining the problem.  Is it the same problem that you are all disagreeing over?  In most cases the issue will be a misunderstanding and clarifying definitions will deal with the conflict.

In the cases where there really is underlying conflict consider the following;

• Will one side of the argument defer a win this round to build up credits with the other side later?
• Can the conflict be solved by a mutual problem solving approach?
• Is there a viable compromise available?
• Is the conflict caused by unclear role definition or by unclear project goals?

(You might lso like to read my blog post on the related topic of making sure your business requriements are valuable at Better Projects.)

Hi Sonavi,

To decide on what to compromise on (quality, dealine, cost) then you are going to need to know how the success of this project will be measured and the target values that equate to success. You say the "business wanted the system to be able to do the credit risk analysis of individual customers account" - why? What benefit is there to this? More customers? Lower risk loans?

Once you know which (or both or others) define the values that the business would agree means that the project can be defined as successful. For example 10% more customers, 20% reduction in loan defaulters, and so on. These are the project benefits and may have (should have!) already been defined.

Once you know the benefits, make an assessment of whether you can compromise quality and still get the benefits, or keep the dealines and still get the benefits or increase costs and still have a positive business case (over simplification: benefits minus costs).

Sometimes you can combine factors (lose a bit of quality and spend a bit more and take a bit more time) but sometimes you run up against constraints that mean you can't change these factors any further - e.g legal restrictions when calculating loans means that the quality cannot be cut back to a point where you can't demonstrate compliance with the law.

By the way, make sure that all who have the authority to directly or indirectly stop the project agree what the benefits are!

Hope that helps.

Guy

Hi Sonavi,

If possible I would collate the impact analysis facts and present to the business and other sponsors (technical people?) to let them make the decision about which option is best ('best' is defined as which option delivers the most in terms of business benefits). It is their project and they should make the decision as they are the sponsors (people who can authorise the project to proceed).

If the business and other sponsors make the decision then explaining the situation to them becomes rather easy!

I hope that makes sense and helps!

Guy