Just read a great article from Mike Gordon of the MIT Sloan Management Review. After surveying more than 300 employees at 28 companies across North America, his team found that businesses with the best product development track records do three things better than their less successful peers.

• Create a clear sense of projects goals early on;
• Nurture a strong project culture;
• Maintain close contact with customers throughout a project's duration.

Of the three, what does your organization do best? I'm presently working with one web development company that has goals one and two nailed, but fell short recently on the third. It made a difference - we missed a client deliverable. I made two phone calls to make sure it didn't happen, but my primary contact person had taken a long weekend, with no message left for me and nothing to show my client. Trust blown.

How do you communicate with your folks when you know you'll be out of the office? You're entitled to vacation. How do you let your clients know you're still responsible for the project they've entrusted to you?