"Soft", here, is not short for "software".

"here’s a list of soft deliverables:

Trust and Presents
Quality and Inclusiveness
Dependable and Honest
Generosity

Let’s look at each of the above “soft” deliverables and how important they are and discuss why projects can be disasters without them."


"As a consultant, I provide a soft service; I provide information. If you also provide a soft service, in order to successful, you must have a hard deliverable. Memory is a terrible thing. If you don’t provide your a hard deliverable, the client quickly forgets your value to them.

My hard deliverable is the report I generate at the end of an assessment. It’s 15 pages. I bind it; I review it with my client and when I go to visit my client, it’s sitting on his shelf. It’s material.

...
The same thing applies in reverse. If I have a hard product, I have to have a soft service. We call it a value add when you do hard products. So if I sell you a piano and that’s all you do, there’s no soft service associated with that piano. Now, if I sell you a piano and I bring it to you, I show you how to operate it, I spend some time with you, and I give three free lessons, that’s the value added soft service on the other side of a hard deliverable. If you look at successful companies, this combination is always present. They hit the marketplace with one side, but they provide as additional value, the other side."