One of my project had a hot button issue that required immediate attention and resolution.  The facts were gathered, the meeting was conducted, the notes went out, and a path forward was published.

Six months later, the solution completed and come to find out, the SME could not implement as they “just discovered” to complete on their end would require an additional several months of work, which no one in their department was willing to do.

And so it goes.  The hurry up and wait or in this case do nothing else.

How to manage this situation where your SME did not do a thorough investigation on their end?

Keeping in mind they are an SME for a reason, meaning no one else has the same depth of knowledge, it could be they are new, their knowledge is not that deep, it’s a slightly different area, product, etc.  All are assuming they know exactly what to do but that may not be the case.

We will explore some options in Part 2.