The Art of Lobbying in Software Development Projects

It happens many times every day all over the world. Someone enters an important meeting and makes a proposal. First one person raises a concern, then another, then another. Much to their consternation, their proposal goes down in flames. They might ask themselves, "Why do people have to be so critical of my ideas? It didn’t even seem like some of them wanted to understand. Why can’t they just listen?"

One of the soft skills that is so valuable in business in general is building consensus, or, in other words, lobbying. So many people fail to do this, and find themselves in losing situations. Here are some more specific examples:

• A new technical team lead announces a new direction for the technical architecture strategy. This is the first anyone else has heard of it, including team members with much deeper understanding of the existing architecture.
• An external consultant running an outsourced project tells the customer’s IT department in a meeting how they are going to have to change their deployment process to support this project.
• A project manager mentions during an iteration review with the team and customers that the tech lead’s development capacity is going from 75% down to 25% to accommodate their other responsibilities.

In such situations, you may have painted yourself in a bad situation. Some people will push back on any decision, good or not, made without their involvement, especially if it impacts them. Often, people just haven’t thought through the issue like you have, and take longer than you might think to catch on. In the meantime, the critique can essentially brand the idea forever as ill-conceived. More often than not, your plan just has a few flaws that should have been addressed before it was lights – camera – action.

Yes, but isn’t it impossible to avoid dissention? And isn’t critique an important part of honing an idea? Isn’t group feedback the right way to go, anyway? Certainly group planning and brainstorming sessions are helpful, and are most effective when you don't arrive with completed proposals. However, when you enter a situation where completed and well-thought-out proposals are needed, lobbying is crucial.

So what does lobbying entail? In short, run your plan by key stakeholders prior to your meeting, discussing your proposal, how you came to your conclusions, and highlighting the expected benefits. Listening is then a very important aspect. Consider feedback, and take the time to solicit their alternative recommendations. Address concerns. Your plan will likely evolve based on these discussions, and you will find that there were rocky parts that have been smoothed, making your plan more viable. Additionally, you will be winning supporters along the way. These people who might have been critics are now likely to back you up when others raise their concerns during a meeting.

Build consensus before making any grand announcements, and you’ll find your ideas and plans much more fully-baked and more easily approved.