Managing Expectations

I like this cartoon strip from Dilbert about managing expectations. Especially apt as my whole team is waiting for the end of this month for the bonus and pay increment.

Equally apt for my experience on the Migration and Upgrade I just completed last week.

I got an email from the customer thanking me for the goodwork and "seamless" migration and upgrade.

My big boss replied, commending that we have raised the level of expectations.

Great...

Frankly, I have been "bullied" into raising the expectations of the customers, as I have given in to all they have requested. Something, which I will not allow to repeat on my next major project hopefully. It does not affect me directly, but I hope my team mates will not be "bullied" into following my example. But it's one thing imagining what retorts I will come up with to reject their request and another thing when your boss who is in the same meeting with you feebly agrees to their request without a fight.

Why doesn't my company operate like my Vendor where every small request results in payment by the customer. In that way, customers will be more mindful before coming up with request that trigger a flurry of acitivities, which may be useless, frivalous matters in the first place. I know we operate on different contracts, but the disparity in the situation also stems not just from the contracts but how the company chooses to or chooses NOT to organise requests systematically and hold its ground against request from the customers.

On the surface, I told my manager I don't see a problem with delivering good quality to the customers.

By right, such notes and good achievements can help add to the assessment of performance which should result in recognition of some sort. But knowing this company, it will probably result in me getting an increase of 0.25 Percent raise to my salary compared to my peers, which is approximately $10. And this is all IF I happen to stay on in this company til the end of the April 2009 and IF I want to continue working hard for this company.

Reflections from work

Hooray!

I am so glad I can still log into my blogger account. It's been so long that I was kind of scared that they'd have killed my account. Anyway, sooo... I think I've been having a really hectic time at work these days. Learnt a few lessons along the way, so I thought I'd blog about it. So that I'd remember better.

So it seems like I have been planning since forever for this string of activities that I am going to conduct for a period of 4 days. I've been prepping the client with details since January, and have been running various tests and arranging several meetings for the last 2 months. So much so that I am just so sick of the issue that I can't wait for it to be over and done with!


Lessons I have learnt:

1. Don't be too detailed to the clients. I think I was seriously too enthusiatic in the beginning. I revealled a lot of details about the tool during the preparation meetings. Then customer made me go and change damn silly minor things about the tool. This resulted in extra work for me, extra work for my programmers. To me, they were just useless things. Improved the tool slightly, but was totally not worth the effort put in, since it was to be run only that once. But customers don't care, because the extra effort is by US, not them.

I can't tell what my boss wants. Does he want me to oblige the client because we should keep them happy? Or does he want me to stick up against them, because these requests just result in extra efforts that don't bring in money. Although I can ask him for major requests, I don't want to run to him for every minor detail, because he is busy enough.

Some members in my team say that I am spoiling the customers. Because I have been giving in to all their request and providing a lot of extra scripts and documents, it seems like I am spoiling the market. During the next major activity, the customer will now be demanding towards them.

Yes, as a matter of principal, we should always provide the best quality or effort to a project, but there has a line to be drawn. Seriously, after a while, their request is just to cover their own asses. It becomes very tiring.



2. Do not respond too quickly to the clients. Cos everytime they make a request or change to the document, it's useless to send it out asap, because since it seems to be so easily changed, they'd just come back with even more silly requests.

It also gives them the impresssion that any documents are easily changed, they start making request to change the documents of my SPB developers and then I have to go back to my Russian developers to change one silly sentence. Only to be asked to change another thing again!


3. Don't do work that is not your work

4. Don't do extra work for the customer. It is not appreciated.

As I am trying to make her stupid idiotic message look better, after she provides it at the last minute, I hear her complaining in the background.

She says "Faster lah, I want to go home. I'm hungry and want to go home for dinner"

And I am thinking "it's 7 pm and it's not like I don't want to go home you sick bitch. It's your BOSS that asked us to carry out the test after 6pm ok. You are an unprofessional whiner"

Then her clone is saying something like yah.. "*** always give this kind of quality. " (talk about rude man...)

Then her boss scolds me on the phone . "why is this? you shouldn't make your customer to do the testing with you.. blah blah blahl.. next time you test it before asking us to verify."

And to save me from all this pain, I should have just said right from the beginning when the message was ugly that " it cannot be done" and send a mail to the developers to fix it and go home.

Instead, I stayed onwards, and worked with one of the nicer fellas to try out ways to fix the problem then. Then kena scolded by all the other 3 evils. (2 who just want to go home, and the boss that has to pacify the whiner)

Shit.

I damn extra.