Senior stakeholders are pushing for results. How can you ensure project deliverables meet their expectations?

Why? That is the question we often fail to ask. Why is this needed now? Why is this more important than the other backlog items we have? Why can't the client live without this. Once you understand the "Why", you can build understanding of the "What" through the outcomes you're targeting. Not the feature details necessarily, but the result or impact you want to deliver. Together Why and What can lead to the How which gets you to the results.

If senior stakeholders are pushing for results, something is not going well. Either you haven’t outlined expectations or you are missing milestones and causing angst. Reevaluate what can you do better to have total alignment and recognize that it may involve change control.

As humans, I find we are predisposed to immediate solutioning vs. asking questions. This is where many of these problems start. Ask the "Wants" and "Needs" questions to derive the requirements then order them by business value. Silly example: I need to go to the shops. I want to drive there in a luxury car, but all I need is reliable transportation. From experience. When the senior stakeholder scream it is often for wants not needs.

Communication is key. However, in many cases, we experience monologues not conversations. Meaning, folks attend a meeting and focus on their e-mail, messaging or social media when they are not an active talker. Looking for an example? attend stand-ups. We are meant to be making commitments and reporting status to each other. Are we? or are folks just clicking a box? So how can we tell? Are questions being asked? Are folks visually replying with facial expressions? So next time you are thinking you are communicating, are you getting feed back? Communication needs us all to stop and listen as others talk.

Quality is vital for the team to succeed, one component can take down the solution. There are so many high-profile cases where only "Happy Path" testing was done, then as a result the solution gets in the customer's hands, and a seemingly benign action causes a cascade failure. Many folks crave attention and fame, but I can assure you this is NOT the fame they are looking for!

Retrospectives are critical. NO this is not a demo, but a retro. Only folks present are the ones who committed code or assets to the solution. Managers cannot attend as the team needs to have the "safe space" to confide in their successes and failures. This makes the retrospective a learning experience where the team grows and moves forward. Also, this is where careful consideration can be used to move necessary but not immediately needed work to the backlog/technical debt. But that is another topic.