R.U.D. - Reduce Uncertainty and Doubt

What is R.U.D? R.U.D. is Reduce Uncertainty and Doubt. R.U.D is the act of reducing uncertainty and doubt, often called F.U.D. – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.

F.U.D. will build up on nearly every project. Coworkers, clients and managers alike will fall victim to F.U.D. and it’s ugly, project-unhinging effects.

“The admin thinks our server can’t handle that many transactions!!” “The Finance group refuses to support us in the effort!” “We’re running out of pens at an alarming rate!”

Pens are important. So is Finance doing what you want. You need all of these things to happen, and yet there is a seemingly immovable barrier standing in your midsts.

How to Reduce Uncertainty and Doubt

There are several situations where F.U.D. could come up, but they crop up more often than not IT-centric gigs. We’ll use an example of some scheduling software not talking to the application software you need.

Remain calm

The first reaction is to run to the project manager and explain the problem to them. This is wrong, think about it. Put yourself in their shoes: how do you feel when someone presents a big problem and expects you to develop the solution?

What separates a mediocre consultant from a great consultant is the ability to face a seemingly difficult problem and find a way around it. This sounds difficult to do, but is not.

Before you go running to the project manager, have a solution, or set of solutions, in-hand…

Understand the issue

“The technology department says their scheduling software won’t work launch an application of this type”

So the IT guys say that the scheduling software won’t work. IT departments are understaffed and overburdened.

Find out what the application type is. Find out what the scheduling software is, version and all. Do a google search on what you need. There’s almost always a work-around.

School-up on the issue. The solution may not be great, but as a result you will become more knowledgeable about the problem.

Record and Analyze the Options

This will eventually become your “executive report” on the subject. Use the problem and project-appropriate tool/template (usually Powerpoint for largre-scale R.U.D.).

List your options. Here is our’s on the computer scheduling issue:

1. We found add-ons that allow the scheduling software to run our application. This add-on will support the underlying enterprise architecture (common), but will be costly (also common). This is the best long-term solution, but expensive.

2. There exists a software work-around that will allow us to do what we want, however, we’ll need to stray from the underlying architecture. This will mean more work for your IT team now and in the future and take longer to implement, but is inexpensive from a purchase standpoint.

Present the Recommendations

This does not have to be formal, these things rarely are, this might come out during a team meeting or similar.

Keep it short and sweet. Don’t “lead the witness” by advocating (selling) or giving unnecessary detail. Seasoned consultants phrase their analysis in such a way that the manager/client comes around to their recommended position.

Afterward

Once you learn how to reduce uncertainty and doubt a few times, it becomes predernatural and analysis in this way becomes immediate.

This is a guaranteed profject booster, and you’ll be given more challenging (read: cooler) assignments in the future. If you can master R.U.D., you can master anything.