diff --git a/nuxt/content/handbook/sales/professional-services.md b/nuxt/content/handbook/sales/professional-services.md index 8d3124cd8a..0fdccdb607 100644 --- a/nuxt/content/handbook/sales/professional-services.md +++ b/nuxt/content/handbook/sales/professional-services.md @@ -2,7 +2,86 @@ title: "Professional Services" --- -FlowFuse may offer support services as part of an annual subscription. If -Professional Services are rendered, it is required to document the learnings in -issues, documentation, and blog content so that the information gleaned is -available to the rest of the organization and the public. +FlowFuse offers Professional Services (PS) to help customers deliver work that +goes beyond standard product support, such as migrations, integrations, and +solution builds. PS is scoped and captured in a Statement of Work (SoW), +separately from the subscription. + +This page sets out how we scope a PS engagement and write the SoW. It exists to +stop two recurring problems: SoWs written from second-hand notes, and solutions +designed before we understand what the customer actually needs. + +## Principles + +Two rules govern every PS engagement. + +### 1. Whoever writes and delivers the SoW takes part in scoping it with the customer + +We do not write a SoW from a brief that someone else captured on our behalf. A +colleague's notes are useful background, but they are not a substitute for the +delivery person hearing the requirements first-hand. Detail and intent are lost +each time requirements are passed along, and the person responsible for delivery +is the one who needs to ask the follow-up questions. + +In practice: before any SoW is drafted, the person who will write and deliver it +joins a scoping conversation with the customer. This can be part of a discovery +or technical call (see [Discovery Meeting](/handbook/sales/meetings/discovery/)) +or a dedicated session. If that conversation has not happened, the SoW is not +ready to be written. + +### 2. We agree what the customer needs before we propose how to build it + +The "how" (the architecture, tooling, and implementation approach) comes after we +understand the outcome the customer wants and why. Settling on a solution before +scope is agreed leads to SoWs that solve the wrong problem. + +Anyone is welcome to suggest approaches at any point, but until scope is agreed +those suggestions are non-binding options, not decisions. The PS deliverer owns +the final solution design. Presenting an early idea as the way we will build +something, before the need is understood, is the thing we are trying to avoid. + +### 3. We do not discuss costing until the SoW content is agreed + +Costing follows scope. We do not put a price or an estimate in front of the +customer, and no one commits to numbers on our behalf, until the technical +content of the SoW has been agreed with the customer. Discussing cost before the +work is defined either anchors the customer to a figure we cannot stand behind or +commits us to work we have not scoped. Once the SoW content is agreed, prepare +the costing and quote by following +[Engagements & Pricing](/handbook/sales/engagements/). + +## The flow + +```mermaid +flowchart TD + Disc["Scoping conversation with customer
(PS deliverer present)"] + Needs["Requirements & outcomes agreed"] + SoW["SoW technical content drafted by the PS deliverer"] + Agreed["SoW content agreed with customer"] + Cost["Costing & quote"] + Deliver["Delivery"] + + Disc --> Needs + Needs --> SoW + SoW --> Agreed + Agreed --> Cost + Cost --> Deliver +``` + +## Writing the SoW + +The SoW is written by the person who will deliver the work, grounded in what was +discussed with the customer. For commercials and quoting, follow +[Engagements & Pricing](/handbook/sales/engagements/). + +- Lead with the technical scope and outcomes. Put commercials and costings last. +- Only list what is in scope. Do not add an out-of-scope section unless the + matching item has been stated as in scope. +- Write for the customer. Keep internal shorthand out of it. +- Tie each deliverable back to a need raised in the scoping conversation. + +## Sharing what we learn + +If Professional Services are rendered, document the learnings in issues, +documentation, and blog content so that the information gleaned is available to +the rest of the organization and the public.