I have a client that we have favored highly over the past few weeks – often at the expense of other clients, or at the expense of my development staff’s sanity. After riding out a wave of unforeseen emergencies, we are now transitioning into a regular maintenance schedule.

It’s difficult, at times, to transition clients to new expectations while still keeping them happy. We generally release to production weekly for our web maintenance clients – but for some people, that just seems too infrequent. On their side, they are not accustomed to planning that far in advance. Or a low priority item suddenly becomes urgent because of the time spent waiting in the backlog.

Therefore, we live in a reactionary state to their lack of planning.

Transitional times like this, I try to focus on my empathy – what is the client feeling now? Why aren’t they thinking ahead? Have they ever done this sort of thing before? What pressures are they feeling, and how can I help them feel more in control?

There is certainly a balance – how much I’m willing to give, how much I need to enforce the rules. And certainly, the more precedent I set of disregarding our process, the more difficult it is to enforce process. In the end, an open mind and an open line of communication, laced with a heavy dose of empathy and understanding, tends to do the trick.