----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John J. McDonough" <mcd@is-sixsigma.com>
> Of course, the customer is always right.

No, not always.  This cliche has been used so many times that few people 
question validity of the statement.  Sometimes the customer doesn't know 
what's good for him.  :)

> been around here a while will recognize that Olin is sometimes a little 
> more
> blunt than the average bear, some would say "honest", but I certainly 
> didn't
> see any attacking going on.
[snip]
> nl, but he sounds a lot like a Dutch guy.  Olin is one of the more.
> knowledgeable folks on this list, and I for one appreciate that he doesn't
> feel compelled to sugar coat his responses.

Olin made some good points, and I am sincerely grateful to him for sharing 
his knowledge and experience, and his honestly.  However, let me be frank in 
return and say that sometimes I wish that Olin would attack the idea and not 
the person.  There is a big difference between "sugar coating" a response 
and just being polite.  Give the person you're talking to the benefit of a 
doubt, instead of assuming right away that he's an idiot.

> Sadly, programmers in general have an issue with communicating things they
> know.  In a more common situation, managers tend to ask for unreasonable
> schedules.  Programmers know that means higher cost and more bugs, but
> managers believe that the compressed schedule will help constrain costs.
> The industry has good data to show the programmers are right, but we 
> rarely
> present that data in a clear fashion.

I believe the book most often cited by programmers when they're trying to 
convince their managers that the schedule is unrealistic, is Brook's "The 
Mythical Man-Month."

Best regards,

Vitaliy 

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist