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View Full Version : Why do people over promise but under deliver?



kevdog
March 14th, 2012, 02:30 AM
Suffice to say, I'm probably older than the average age of members to this forum. With age and experience, my impressions about what's really important in life have definitely changed. I'm sure they are bound to constantly and consistently change in the future, however I guess that's part of life.

I'm of the things I consistently see is the tendency for individuals or companies to consistently over promise but under deliver on results. This tendency seems to cross all economic barriers, levels of education, levels of experience. I'm here to declare that I HATE (yes HATE when such events take place). Whatever happened to the premise of just saying what you mean, and mean what you say? The ethics of making things right when you promised to do so? To surprise the customer or individual by under promising but over delivering.

As I go through life, it seems nothing is more annoying to people than failing to meet their expectations. It would seem to me this is one of the biggest causes of civil litigation. Failure to meet expectations can be due to a number of reasons, however it seems usually its a failure of honest communication between business and client. The client is often times led to believe things that never turn out to be true. Whether the intent of this deceit is an honest mistake or malicious, I find it to be unimportant. Oftentimes when the failure to meet expectations is discovered, the company or individual providing the service discovers its too hard to rectify the problem, and slows starts the "fade to black" hoping the customer will just go away.

My biggest advice to all you young forum users is to not be tempted to over promise people outcomes that you can not deliver upon in the hopes of gaining a quick dollar quick recognition. Individuals don't like being treated in this manner. Don't take shortcuts. Many equate success with riches, or material possessions, however there is something to be said for individuals who achieve success by not ripping people off, or taking shortcuts. Please don't be that type of guy or girl.

Dangertux
March 14th, 2012, 02:50 AM
+ 1 , though I'm not sure what brought it on.

With one caveat though, if I do something for someone for free. A prime example being this forum, I know many times I've promised to come back to a thread to help someone and I just can't find it or, or can't find the time. However, that is something I do for free, my motto there is if you don't like my help you can have double your money back. Sometimes real life gets in the way, however when it comes to business matters or serious obligations. EG : You promised a family member or friend (or even acquantance) you would do something important, and fail to do it. Then that stinks.

IWantFroyo
March 14th, 2012, 03:28 AM
I agree.

Many times I've had to bear most of a project's weight on my shoulders, because despite my coworkers speaking highly of what they'll do, some of the time they either offer to help at the last minute or conveniently disappear.

The competition among people may be pressuring them to try to make promises they can't fully keep in order to reserve their role, but actions speak louder than words. The man next to me might promise the world, but the quietest one may be the only one still there at the end.

Bottom line, don't throw words lightly about, and let your own actions dictate who you are. Once employers and friends recognize what you're like, they'll do all the promising for you, and your reputation will be valuable beyond any futile phrases.

Thank you for posting this thread, kevdog.

[/rant]

sammiev
March 14th, 2012, 03:31 AM
+1 to the OP. Great read as well. Thanks! :)

JDShu
March 14th, 2012, 03:50 AM
It's hardwired (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion_of_control) into our (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect) psyche. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism_bias) Nobody is completely immune, unfortunately.

kevdog
March 14th, 2012, 04:38 AM
Sorry to anyone who thought this may be relating to the Ubuntu Forums or an interaction in the Forums -- its not. These forums are done on a volunteer basis. I'm talking about interactions in real life, at work, at a business, in hiring people to do a job for you, etc.

1clue
March 14th, 2012, 04:39 AM
Speaking as somebody who has been developing custom software for decades, I have several scenarios where both parties feel the other has over-promised and under-delivered.

I suspect that the OP and/or many of those who agree wholeheartedly have not had to bid on a project before all the details are finalized.

A typical software project comes into being as a poorly defined desire to have something done.

"I want a program that helps me solve my accounts receivable problems." The management of said company finds a software development firm, and THAT company (the developers) promptly ask:

"What accounts receivable problems?"

"I have too many bills that never get paid."

"Why don't they get paid?"

That continues for a long time, and in the end it turns out they really have no idea why they don't get paid, but they think they do. It inevitably turns out to be something completely different, and it's up to the developers to figure it out.

Another truth in this equation is that the customer is always thinking of their existing software when they start talking about the other one, and unless you're the same vendor with the same but improved product, the new product will never be an incremental change to the old one. So the users will be doing something entirely different with a tool they never had before, and they're specifying solutions to problems which probably do not exist, even though heretofore never imagined problems DO exist, and nobody imagined them so nobody wrote anything about it in the specifications.

Then there's the inevitable misunderstanding between the language of the developers and the language of the client. They come from different educational backgrounds, professional backgrounds and probably cultural backgrounds. So the client says what they think, the developers say what they think the client thinks, and they go back and forth until they all think they understand each other or until they lose heart and give up in frustration.

Finally, in the time it takes to develop the product, the original causes to the original problems may have vanished because somebody found the real problem and made a real solution, so they don't need that feature anymore. They also turned over a few people in their AR department so they don't even have anybody who remembers asking for it or why, even though it's in the spec.

Inevitably, by the time the project gets done the product might solve the problems it was contracted to solve very well, but the customer's needs have changed so the product doesn't solve their CURRENT problem anymore. So in that way, the customer thinks the developers failed, and the developers think the customer failed, and in truth neither and both failed, if that makes sense.

The only real way around that is to have a very short and incremental development environment, but that hasn't been a widespread practice until relatively recently. If the customer, including the users, see what the project looks like as it gets developed, they can say yes or no, and they can say "Instead of putting this feature in, can you make it do that instead?" before any actual development time has been spent, when that sort of change is much cheaper.

Then the next iteration comes around and the project looks slightly more like a finished product. Before long the customer actually uses the project and changes are tiny, for bug fixes or minor UI tweaks only.

The problem with the incremental approach is that it's really hard to bid, unless the customer is willing to go by hours rather than a bid.

Even so, the only way that the OP's intent can exist is when the finished product already exists (as in off-the-shelf software or a car that's on the dealer's lot) or when they're building cabinets or something that has been done the same way with minor variations for so many iterations that the manufacturer and the customer can know they're speaking the same language.

Thewhistlingwind
March 14th, 2012, 05:48 AM
You know. I promised someone a long time ago that I'd add articles to the Ubuntu wiki. I should really go do that.

spynappels
March 14th, 2012, 09:54 AM
I hate it even more when someone has promised to do something for a third person and then expects you to fix the mess they make by doing it badly while making it look to the third person like they're doing their job and you've messed up.

Grenage
March 14th, 2012, 10:12 AM
I'm talking about interactions in real life, at work, at a business, in hiring people to do a job for you, etc.

I'd go as far as saying that it seems to be more prevalent than other. Put it this way, I wouldn't rehire someone who was wildly off the mark, unless they had a damn good reason.

My personal peeve is of the shorter duration; people who tell you that something will "just be a minute", several times in a row. Seriously, if it's going to take 10 minutes, say that it's going to take 10 minutes.

winh8r
March 14th, 2012, 10:28 AM
A very good friend has a saying:

"Don't tell me what you are going to do, show me what you have done"

Nothing worse than an "empty promise" especially when you know that the promise was made with financial gain in mind regardless of the practicalities.

forrestcupp
March 14th, 2012, 12:36 PM
My biggest advice to all you young forum users is to not be tempted to over promise people outcomes that you can not deliver upon in the hopes of gaining a quick dollar quick recognition.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who do this type of thing intentionally. That's what you call a confidence man. As much as we'd like to believe that everyone has good intentions, it's not true. A big part of life is to learn to discern when people are trying to take advantage of you, and to learn how to put a stop to it.

That doesn't just apply to the big scammers offering you $1million in exchange for a bank account number so they can deposit it for you. It also applies to the people we live around who want to manipulate you for their own good.