There’s a big project at work, and I’m working on the reports. Well and good. There has been some confusion about exactly how they want the reports delivered (meaning that, right now I need to download them, encrypt them, and send them out manually), but it’s being sorted out.
However, this project has been in testing for months, and I know that I’ve sent everybody involved copies of the reports generated in the test environment.
Now the project has gone live, and they’re complaining that the reports aren’t useful and demanding all sorts of changes. And they want those changes now, not for the next release in February.
And, you know what? Fine. With this project done, I have some free time. They tell me what they want Friday morning, I put my nose to the grindstone, and get a sample report generated for them by the end of Friday, along with a request for feedback.
And now, despite their urgency, they seem in no hurry to give me the feedback I need to commit these changes and put them in for testing.
Not to mention that there would be no urgency if they had just bothered to take a look at the report format and provide feedback during the testing phase!
I mean, seriously. Learning how to parse the input file for the report was a challenge, but with that done, I could make this report stand up and dance a jig if that’s what they needed. Reformatting a report isn’t hard. The more they want changed, the more time and effort it will take to get the chance reviewed and tested, but that’s hardly my problem. My problem is that I can’t even get the reviewing-and-testing phase started until they tell me if the report I’ve created says what they they want it to say.
Come on. I’ve done the hard bits. I’ve responded to their urgency with urgent action. The least they can do is show the same sense of urgency in signing off on the changes (or not) so that it can keep moving forward.