Why Some ERP Projects Need Saving: My Personal Guitar Building Analogy

Recently I decided to build an electric guitar by sourcing the components to build it to the specs I desired. I've been playing guitar for 20 years, and have a slightly more than rudimentary understanding of how they work. How hard could it be?

I started my journey how any other over zealous 21st century human would; by matriculating in in the very prestigious, and wildly popular YouTube University. Armed with my new found knowledge and abundance of gumption, I was off to the races, or so I thought. Eventually, what started as an exciting quest to build a guitar that I would feel inspired to play, would end up a nightmare of my own creation that still has no "go-live" in sight.

So today, like every other waking moment of my life, my work intruded my thoughts while thinking through my own personal dilemmas. The lightbulb turned on and it dawned on me; my guitar building project was a beautiful microcosm for how ERP projects can go sideways.

Discovery phase was easy. It didn't take long until I decided that the Fender Stratocaster was the perfect platform to build on to fit the gaps in my current guitar arsenal. I didn't have a three single coil pickup guitar yet, and this would be the perfect compliment to where my night job has taken me. Americana music draws on a various roots music genres that generally call for single coil tones, so my SSS configuration Strat solution made sense. To make everything even easier, my brother in New York had an old beat up Strat body lying around that he shipped to me free of charge! I was certainly starting out strong on budget control, but that wouldn't last long.

Design phase was my favorite part. Requirement gathering was pretty easy, considering I was gathering requirements from myself. Most components were based off of functionality and quality, but for some components I opted to lean more on aesthetic appeal. The biggest customization in my design would be investing in a raw neck with a PRS style 3+3 tuner configuration versus stardard Strat in-line 6 tuner configuration. This would end up hurting me the most in the long run.

I won't bore you to death with all the details of the build phase. But there were a lot of unforeseen issues with certain components not completely fitting. If I were a more experienced Solution Architect, I would've foreseen them too. I've spent a lot time the last couple of months of wood gluing, shimming, sanding, dremeling (totally not a real verb, but it is now), and drilling. Mistakes were made, solutions were found, and nothing had completely threatened the playability, until the neck came.

I know that guitars are sensitive to humidity, and for the life of me I can't believe how dumb I could have been to leave the raw custom neck I bought out in the garage to get warped, but it did. The worst part is that I didn't know it at the time and still spent countless hours sanding it, treating it with mineral spirits, painting it, and then applying 9 coats of nitrocellulose finish.

To make matters worse, I also ended up getting tuners that ended up not fitting great that I had to modify to fit the headstock. This didn't seem like a big deal, but I ended up having to scrap the neck with the headstock they could accommodate, because it was warped. All in all this combination of mistakes set me back about $450. Plus the $330 I spent for a different finished neck, and new tuners to fit that headstock.

When it came time to wire the electronics, set the neck, and give it a set up I tapped out. I came too far and screwed too many things up already, I had to fire myself. I knew I had to hand this project off to a professional. My wallet is going to take a way bigger hit than I planned, and I'm going to end up with a product that isn't 100% what I wanted, but it will end up at least an 80/20 fit. I guess the Pareto Principle rings true for guitars too.

I'm a proud owner of a PRS Custom 24. PRS guitars are expensive, but worth it. They are the perfect example of blending classicalism with romanticism, functionality with aesthetic, they are truly the epitome of what guitars should be to me. But for some reason, instead of just buying a PRS Silver Sky, I somehow thought I could beat the game, and that I'd be a hero by piecing together a similar guitar at a fraction of the price. My guitar will be completed soon by my go to guitar tech, it still will have some of my mark on it, and one hell of a story. But it will also have an equally hellacious price tag.

Over customization, resource allocation issues via my personal time, lack of expertise, and an aversion toward spend really did me in on this project. These issues should all sound familiar to anyone who has worked on implementing an enterprise business application. I could've been playing this guitar by now if I just bought the components and handed it right off, aka bought the licenses and hired the right partner. I didn't set a budget for this guitar either, and I did not track my spending. At this point I don't even want to begin to add up the costs, it would be painful to see the actual bottom line. However, I can confidently say that with the mistakes I made, it would probably be eerily similar price point if I had just bought an "OOTB" solution or deferred to an expert for my custom build to begin with.

Tomorrow I hand off my guitar project to a trusted and reputable independent guitar tech here in Austin. I met him through a neighbor of mine that's also a musician. He's made custom amplifiers for Jason Isbell, and worked on tons of well known local musicians guitars and amps. I wouldn't have met him unless I asked around and made connections to widened my view of the market beyond the music shops in town. For someone who helps my clients connect with the equivalent mastery in the Microsoft Dynamics world, I find it comically tragic that I suffered the same fate building my guitar that many of my clients suffered through building their own software solution. However, there is one thing I can guarantee at the end of this; user adoption will not be an issue!