I found in the past few weeks that management (and some non-management coworkers as well, but less so) have a tendency to demand things to be done without specifying how they want it done. And once it is done in a way in which a) things are usually done at our office, and b) sometimes even is the proper way to do it, they have a look at it and want a part of it done differently. And once that is done, they see another thing which could be done in another way - the last time I put a simple presentation on the web for download, I got requests to change file format, link text, link placement etc. over a time span of three weeks...

Sometimes I wonder... is it really that management people just can't express themselves and communicate properly, or we tech people don't understand them? Isn't it rather that they really don't know what it is they want - and therefore express themselves in very general terms, almost to the point of being evasive - and only when they see the result they have an idea?

Apart from writing specs down and have them approved, how do others work around this kind of problem? Is it a problem at all in other companies?

--cs

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls. - George Carlin