The next mistake which is really easy to make is to answer the question what's the best you can do.
It goes really well.
And of course it's our job to answer any question we're asked and it's natural to answer that question.
But you've got to be really careful about this particular question because if somebody says what's the
best you can do if everything works if the I.T. works first time nobody is off sick.
You haven't forgotten anything.
The weather is perfect.
How quickly do you think you might be able to do this job for me.
If you answer that question if you say well I might be able to do it in six weeks.
You are now committed to doing it in six weeks and however you word your out.
You're going to be committed to that number even if you say well it's highly unlikely everything is
going to go well but if in theory nobody is off sick and the I.T. works and the weather is brilliant
I might be able to do it in six weeks.
All your customer hears is la la la la la la la la.
Six weeks.
So how ever many provisos you put in.
They won't hear those they'll just hear six weeks.
So don't say that number six.
Once it's out of the bottle you can never get it back in.
So if you do say six weeks you're pretty much do.
I mean obviously there is a tiny chance you'll achieve it but you've probably got a 99 percent probability
that you're going to fail.
So what should you say when your boss says or your customer says if it's an external project how quickly
might you be able to do this for me.
And the answer is to weasel out.
So what I would say is wow quite a difficult project there's a lot of unknowns.
We got some difficult I.T. in this one.
It could easily take 10 or 11 weeks I reckon.
Don't say six.
I'm just using six as an example obviously you'll know what your range is.
But whatever that number is don't give it to them and it's the same for cost if they say if it goes
really well and nothing goes wrong.
How cheaply might you be able to do this for us.
Don't say I can do it for six hours and say well is quite a lot of unknowns.
I think it could easily take 10 or 11 thousand to get this done.
OK.
So weasel out and don't are the question.
And if you're a boss don't ask the question because if you're the boss and you say to the person how
quickly might I get this.
And they say you might get it in six weeks.
That number is useless.
That's a number that they're almost certainly not going to achieve.
So it's quite dangerous if you ask that question you'll probably go I think he brilliant six weeks and
you'll include that in all your plans and your promise to customers that will be in your financial forecasting
and that's going to be awful because it's not going to happen.
And then you'll have to go back at them and blame them.
But should you blame them because really you should blame yourself for asking that question.
So don't ask them what the best possible time is ask them for a range or ask them for an average or
even better ask them for an average plus a safety margin.
Give me a 90 percent reliable forecast is what you should really be asking for.
But just ask them to show you the plan.
It's the best thing.
Show me your plan so what's involved in this project or whatever you do don't start asking them to give
you a really optimistic forecast because you're not going to get it.