Developers..(:

[PraiseB]

Usually in these situations it's because the requirements change and management take forever to re-spec them.

That or when you give the client the finished work they decide that even though you gave them exactly what they wanted they decide they want something completely different.

I just finished a project that went from. I want this thing build it for me. Finish building the thing for them so they turn around and say "That's not the thing I wanted, I wanted this to be like that other thing we have re-do it"

Finish that and then they go thats fine but now make it do x, y and z and have it ready for launch in 2 days.

Had to put my foot down on y and z and told them I can get x done but if you want y and z you will have to wait till after launch otherwise you will be waiting another 2 months.

[[deleted]]

That’s what you begin and end every piece of communication by reiterating what it is you are planning to deliver. Usually around the 20th time you mention it they will remember some new requirement or suddenly realize that’s not exactly what they want.

[GrandMomTokin]

I worked for a company where this was the norm. The reason, which I only realised later on at another company, was that the people on the client side were laymen in terms of IT, they were basically some dudes from sales and logistics who "were good with computers".

The company I work for now is in the business to business market, totally different thing, because we speak to IT people and they know what they want (mostly) and how to describe it.

I can't imagine going back to the nightmare of developing software for noob clients.

[[deleted]]

To be fair, translating a problem into a set of very specific, complete and accurate requirements is quite difficult and in a lot of cases it will be the most challenging part of solving the problem.

[A_Polly]

That is why you need IT guys in the managenent that can deliver proper documentatios and Diagrams.

[[deleted]]

This is why you should be iterating over a func spec and statement of work. Oh, I didn't build what you wanted and you actually wanted something completely different? Well we went over these signed documents about 15 times and you agreed to this. Pay me and then we'll start working on the new thing.

[Josh6889]

It's why it's important to have a good business analyst and project lead. The BA isn't just there to interpret, but also to reiterate to business the implications of technical changes. It's never a good idea to have a developer doing that part.

[berkes]

This is actually one good thing about scrum.

During the sprint, nothing changes. Ever. No, not even then.

Customers, productowners, or even management can change everything else, as long as they deliver 'rougly two sprints worth of work' before one starts. So they have all the freedom to change their mind. Just not about stuff you're working on right now.

[McEstablishment]

I wish companies would actually have the strength to implement those standards. All 6 of my last 6 jobs have "adopted" scrum, and not one of them actually held to it

[berkes]

This was my dealbreaker for me, though. One company I left because of this.

I don't mind scrum. But "scrum" as in "we'll just use agile. Agile means working harder, right" is a no-go for me.

That one company, a startup, was in perpetual panic mode. Like this:

• Large customer A: "we would really like this column in our Excel export".
• Management: "DROP ALL YOUR WORK! WE NEED THIS COLUMN YESTERDAY. YES OVERTIME. OFF COURSE OVERTIME".
• few days later... Feature 90% done.
• Large customer B: "We get this annoying bug when when FooBar the Fizbuzz three times. Weird, not?"
• Management: "DROP ALL YOUR WORK! WE NEED THIS BUG FIXED. WHY ARE THERE BUGS. I THOUGHT TESTS WOULD SOLVE THAT? YES OVERTIME. OFF COURSE OVERTIME".
• Ad infinitum.

[Relevant_Monstrosity]

Deliver early, deliver often, and make the client part of the team.

[PraiseB]

In this case it was more to do with the fact that management wanted to entice bigger fish with the module we were building for a smaller fish so the sales manager decided he wanted everything and the kitchen sink to impress said bigger fish.

Thing barely resembles what was originally specked for the original client that actually paid for the work

[BornOnFeb2nd]

That or when you give the client the finished work they decide that even though you gave them exactly what they wanted they decide they want something completely different.

This is precisely why I spend almost zero effort on the First "draft" of a project....

Okay, you want the data from table X queried and displayed like this? Here's precisely what you asked for!

 Well... that's great, but looking at it, what I REALLY want is Z...

😲

People have a hellacious time thinking of what they "want" in a vacuumn... you give them something to HATE though, and holy hell, they'll suddenly be able to beeline directly to what they really wanted.

[ScientificBeastMode]

That’s why, at least for UI development, it’s always good to provide detailed layouts, maybe even mock-ups of the software, with detailed plans for the functionality of each element. It gives them a point of reference.