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On this Incident Reporting and Analysis System for a large Pharma Manufacturer, we were on a tight schedule and almost done with a prototyping iteration. I had sketched out the logical data base model, and my developer had a set of screen prototypes in Visual Basic ready to review with the Client.

Here was an opportunity to get a sign-off from the client on an intermediate deliverable that would help nail down the scope on this small but slippery system. And I blew it.

I scheduled a review meeting with the main client and her associate, who was representing the interests of the second major manufacturing group that would use this system. We had the prototypes ready to show in the conference room, and hardcopies for note taking. And I had a fresh issues list document ready to capture the agreed-upon changes. In the nature of things, there would have to be some changes made based on the client review. If for no other reason, this was a means to remind everyone that the Client was in charge.

We had been working hard on the data base design and the screen mockups. Time was short, so as per my usual approach, I deferred development on the reports. All I had on the reports was a partial listing of Titles, based on the reports from the old system.

The review began, and went well. Both ladies were sharp, and although they were engineers not trained in system design, they followed along and understood the pretty straightforward data base design. They picked up on the details that we used to implement the “no lost data” rules of the Good Manufacturing Practice information environment.

I captured the changes on a punchlist, and they agreed to sign off on the data base design and prototype based on the Punchlist changes. We barely touched on the report set, and agreed to defer that a bit until we had a functioning system that could populate the database. I missed the looks exchanged on the Client side of the table when we touched on the reporting.

I must have left my “worm detector” at home that day, because the reporting was the “can of worms” in this system, and I missed it.