What happens when your clients doesn’t have (or doesn’t use) any kind of project documentation?
This may relate to program/system documentation, system specifications, or even processes and procedures, and could either be a failure of not having a proper quality management system in place, or not having one at all.
The Consequences
It is the worst possible scenario, since the client will not have a baseline for where they are, or where they want to be, or even how they are going to get there. There can be no effective measurement of quality, nor a validation of requirements, reliable project planning or proper benefits analysis.
The whole project or programme will undoubtedly be subject to scope creep, and the delivered project/programme will almost certainly not be what was asked, and very difficult to measure in terms of success. There is sure to be an overrun of costs exceeding both time and budgets.
In development terms, the code will be difficult to maintain, difficult to understand and will require significant time for each developer (and future developers, if the situation continues) to acquaint themselves with what has already gone before. It is an inefficient use of developer time which impacts the project budget.
Unfortunately, there are still several corporations where some or all of the above failings still apply. On top of this a natural consequence (outside of the those already mentioned) is often the corresponding lack of ability to make any kind of informed decision, and therefore a reluctance to make any kind of decision on many of the most trivial of issues, for fear of getting it wrong.
What Contractors/Freelancers can do
It is the responsibility of all contractors to help their clients achieve their goals by providing clients with documentation for all the work they have done, and to encourage the clients to adopt procedures and processes that will allow them to plan and produce projects that can be validated, and that have realisable benefits within cost-effective time and budget constraints adhering to (documented) standards for quality.
What Management can do
In terms of management, the only real way to address this kind of situation is for staff to undertake courses of retraining in project/programme management, quality management systems and procedures, along with specific basic systems development for more targeted staff. This could take the form of courses such as MSP, PRINCE2, ITIL and Systems Development.
After all, along with the risk of de-motivating staff through a lack of clear objectives, empowerment or proper guidance; it would not also then be fair to also penalise them for not being psychic about what is required and what work is to be achieved!