[thelist] (no subject)

Ray Hill lists at prydain.com
Thu Jan 25 01:40:31 CST 2001


The most important thing, I think, is voicing your concerns when you have them.  For instance, if you feel you're having to sacrifice quality for time, send your boss an email to that effect (keep a copy of the email for later, just incase).  That way, if they come back to you and say "why didn;t you tell us it would take this long" or the like, you can show them that you didd in fact tell them.


I'll leave you with an amusing quote I heard this weekend, that strikes true to me, referring to project expectations vs. reality.

   Make it fast,
   Make it good,
   Make it cheap.
   Pick two.

--ray



---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "C. Maynard" <cmaynard at lclark.edu>
Reply-To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 20:00:32 -0800 (PST)

>
>
>Hey all--
>
>I have a question and am hoping you can help provide some input.
>
>I report to someone who isn't so hot on the people skills.
>He wants excellent work in a time frame that just doesn't provide 
>for it.  My response to this was usually to do everything I could
>to meet his deadline and if that failed to just flat out tell him
>it wasn't going to happen.
>
>Recently, though, I tried something different: I was told to come
>up with a reasonable scope of work that could be done in a given
>timeframe.
>So that's what I did: they told me I had two days to do something, along
>with everything else I was working on.  I told them what I could get done.
>They approved it, and I did my thing.  Two things happened:
>First, the person who was supposed to finish up the project didn't do it
>on time, so I didn't have time to test it.
>Second, I went on vacation and the project was passed to someone
>else.  That person made several good suggestions that were then
>implemented.
>
>Here's the problem: the guy has now decided that I absolutely don't
>know what I'm doing, because clearly if these suggestions needed
>to be made, I didn't do it properly to start with.
>I knew they needed to be done, but they told me I had a very specific
>amount of time, so I omitted them from the current version.
>
>I know I told them that there were still things that needed to be
>done, but all they remember is that I left for vacation and the
>project was "a mess."
>
>Now, of course it wasn't a mess.  It was an intermediary version.
>And he's not a programmer so he wouldn't know.
>
>But now I am having to submit daily task reports about what I do
>with my time, he comes over and demands to know
>why something took me four hours, etc.  It's hard to explain that
>if you are going to do a good, thorough job, you can't do it in
>thirty minutes.  He simply points to other people in the company
>who can do it faster.  I have a difficult time saying, "Yes,
>but have you looked at their code?  They may get it done, but
>they make a holy living mare of a mess for anyone who has
>to work with or read their code when they're done."
>
>I've already submitted an analysis in which I stated, okay,
>I need to get more information from you.  Clearly, the quality 
>was more important than meeting the deadline.  This was not
>made clear to me, but in the future I will be sure to get
>this information from whomever is assigning me the task,
>etc.  But the daily task reports and demands to know
>why I am spending three whole hours setting up an entire
>web site continue.
>
>Is there something else I can do?  Do you have any suggestions?
>
>Much appreciation,
>-C
>
>
>
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