Managing Expectations

Non-F# content warning: Skip to the next one if you’re not interested in general stuff.

Generally, a working programmer doesn’t have too many difficult “non-programming” tasks. Difficulty is the name of our game, and we like it that way. That said, one of the most critical skills a developer has is to manage folks’ expectations of you. Thought-work, in general requires a level of communication that seems nonstandard and maybe a little unnatural to your work.

The reality of being a working programmer is this: Your boss probably doesn’t exactly understand what you’re doing. Your boss may be relying on you to do a good job, regardless of his/her detailed understanding of your work. Making sure those expectations are set properly is key to keeping this relationship copacetic.

An Example: A customer asks you to sneak in a quick feature. You’ve taken a swag at it, and it looks like it won’t take more than a few hours and doesn’t impact anything, so you agree. Your customer leaves you happy, and everything seems fine. Fast forward to a week from now. The feature you were supposed to be working is late, and blocking everything going out. Your customer, who felt like his request was tiny, and shouldn’t impact anything, complains to your boss that the feature is late. Your boss, who has no idea that you agreed to anything, has now the unpleasant task of defending why the feature is late, even though she/he didn’t know it was part of the release. That makes her/him look disorganized and incompetent, and that’s not how you want to make your boss feel or look, even if you hate her/him.

Take a look at your day to day interactions and communications. Do folks know what you are doing? Do they know when you releasing your work?

Here’s a tip. Don’t assume that folks are reading every email, or “making the connection.” Make yourself very clear about what you are doing, when you expect to be complete, and if there are any items blocking you. If you are not sure yourself what to be doing, there is a very good chance you have not managed expectations well.