Requirements overload

Today -1 Week: Them: So, here’s what we need by 9th June. Us: Ok, we can just about do that…

Today: Them: Oh, add all of these things and put most of the things we asked for last week way down the list. Can you still do it by the 9th?

Perhaps.

Right now we don’t know if we can still hit the 9th. The new requirements have added a vast element of uncertainty. So today we said no, we probably can’t hit the 9th, please prioritise or give us a later date.

Even though I do this all the time it’s hard. I don’t like upsetting clients. I know it’s for their own good, but…

The thing is, as of today we don’t know if we can hit the date. I’d prefer to make everyone aware of that fact now. They may be able to mitigate the delay if we tell them now. It may be harder in a week. Of course we may actually still be able to hit the date, but today we’re not sure. So we’ll tell them. Once we’ve digested these new requirements and adjusted the predicted workload and quoted we’ll have more of a view on when we can deliver…

I’d rather come in early than late. I’d rather give you time to plan some kind of recovery - or at least give you a chance to explain why the date is so hard that we have to work every waking hour between now and then… Trust me, if you don’t really need us to do that, you don’t really want us to quote on that basis…