Managing Expectations

As soon as a task is alloted to you to act upon, it is very necessary to understand the scope of the task and also about what is expected out of the task. The important thing to note down is the acceptance criteria. When a Manager or Technical lead assigns a task the acceptance criteria plays a vital role. It tells us what to do and what not to do in the task.

The things to note before the task execution is started are

• Input:
• What are the references?
• What are the assumptions?
• What are the constraints of the task?

• Output:
  
• What are the deliverables?
• The form of the deliverables?
• Scope and depth of the deliverable if it is a document.

If these things are not clear there is no point in starting the task. If you must start this must be conveyed to the Manager or Technical lead and it must be made clear that there can be an impact on the schedule if these things are not made clear soon.

The performance is measured according to how efficiently we manage the expectations of Manager. There may be situations when the assigned task looks simple and doable at first but when we actually start doing, it emerges as a challenge and difficult to complete. This point is the most crucial point of the expectation management concept. The fact that the task has become challenging is a risk item and must be raised before the Manager so it can be escalated or can be managed.

We must clearly state the fact that the task has become challenging and it seems difficult to achieve in the given time. At the most what will happen is, that the Manager will ask us to do our best and come up with the solution even if it takes additional efforts from our side. I agree that we may need to pour additional efforts into the task sometimes but this remains in the knowledge of the Manager that you have done extra work.

If the challenge or risk is not conveyed than the Manager remains with the feeling that the task is progressing and in the end when it is discovered that the task has not been completed then that failure is attributed to the concerned developer. Even if the developer has worked hard to achieve some part of the task somehow, the efforts are not appreciated, instead the non completion of the task is attributed to the developer.

We as a developer has tendency to jump into the coding mode and start coding but this ground work of getting the INPUT and OUTPUT right in front of us is very necessary and are part of expectation management.

A developer who raises flags well in advance in time, who manages expectations is seen as a good performer.



with regards
Tushar

(Image courtesy Stephen Martindale)