As you get deeper into this adventure, you'll find yourself in the Stakeholder Swamp. You’ll spend a few days here gathering information and opinions that you’ll need towards the end of the journey. The Stakeholder Swamp is very dangerous terrain because you’ll be unearthing some of the reasons why people might object to the technology implementation you’ll be proposing. The most important thing to watch out for is the quicksand – objections that are simply designed to stall you for a while.  See the Example Day Trip below for tips on identifying and avoiding this common peril.

Example Day Trip
As a part of your technology implementation, you'll find it may be necessary to change your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Day 1: Uncovering a Real Issue
While talking with your Network Adminstrator, you learn that an ISP change may create more work and take a lot of time, as he would have to update the mail exchange records on the DNS server, which in turn could cause temporary mail delivery failures from around the globe.  (Please note that a translation booklet may be necessary on all day trips and are not included as a part of this package.)

Day 2: Getting Stuck in Quicksand
A colleague hears your idea and lists a number of vague, catch-all reasons why it shouldn't go forward, such as cost, reliability of the system and its usefulness. As it turns out, his real issue has nothing to do with the technology you're proposing, but a project he's working on depends entirely on remaining with the current ISP. You might never know that this is his issue, since he's not telling you.

Tip for Avoiding Quicksand
Ask for specifics.  If the issue is real (and therefore worthy of your time spent in working around it) your colleague will be able to qualify his statements with facts.   He may even be able to suggest ways you and he could work around it together.  If he can't get more specific about a perceived problem, you need to dig deeper to find the real objection.

Suggested Questions
How much is too much to spend on this technology?

	What have you heard that makes you question the reliability of this solution?
	If I can solve this problem, would you be in favor of this technology implementation?