A family member had surgery recently and had to sign a consent form:
I have been advised that all surgery involves general risks, including but not limited to bleeding, infection, nerve or tissue damage and rarely, cardiac arrest, death or other serious bodily injury. I acknowledge that no guarantees or assurances have been made as to the results that may be obtained.
And so on . . . Don’t say you weren’t warned!
Medical professionals are very good at setting realistic expectations with the customer, whereas in IT we take customers into projects with glib assurances and wishful thinking.
I wonder if we could make a practice of saying to customers even something as simple as this:
“This project — like all projects — has a number of possible outcomes, and not all of them are good. Let’s go over some of the more likely scenarios . . .”
Thus spoke The Programmer.