Solution Engineers Ensure Delivery

It was Charles Eliot, early president of Harvard University who penned the de facto motto of the US Postal Service, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Solution engineers should be no less vigilant.

After a solution engineer establishes trust and determines mutual vision, they ensure the delivery of a solution for the customers. Delivery is what the customers need and what they will remember. Ensuring delivery is the third of an SE’s three primary objectives. Once accomplished, SEs are expected to deliver again and again.

This course covers eight concepts that are fundamental to SEs in the delivery process. It starts with managing expectations, which is a critical skill for successful solution engineering. Expectations can be complex, ambiguous, and illusive. Yet, SEs should be uniquely suited to handle this important function. Among other things, great solution engineers perform discovery, they anticipate change, and keep a schedule. When things go wrong they conserve resources, communicate effectively, and they protect their client and company.

The course also covers the process of interpreting customer requirements, including dealing with vagueness and opacity, as well as confronting the problem of scope creep and anticipating customer changes. The course also covers the importance of protecting organizations from danger and folly, the cardinal sin of sandbagging, the importance of keeping delivery schedules, and more.