The Dog Ate My Homework

"'Course," Roscoe went on, "there are always those varmints who come back with 'the dog ate my homework.' I have no patience for these guys, and wonder how they got in the front door in the first place. And wouldn't you know it: They always tell you the night before delivery that they are going to miss, and you know for sure that they knew they were in trouble long before that. They're just not serious people, and they need to be moved down the road as fast as possible."

That seemed fair to me. Folks who waited until the last minute to give me the bad news had always upset me. In addition to suspecting that this was a sign of cowardice on their part, I also felt it robbed me of time I could have used to find an alternate plan to cover for their failure.

"You got that right, Roscoe," I replied. "But sometimes it seems like there has just been a misunderstanding."

"Well, there are two frequent 'mechanical' failure modes. The first is not agreeing on what the commitment is. That is, what exactly is the deliverable? How many tubulars, and where in Notrees^[7] do they have to be delivered?

^[7] Appropriately named town in the west Texas desert.

"The second is being fuzzy on the 'when.' I always tell the hotshot the hour by which the goods have to be delivered in Notrees. He understands that if the delivery is late, then I'm not getting what I paid for."

"You're on the money there," I volunteered. "How does that apply to software?"

Roscoe did not hesitate. "Software guys would be well-served if they were a little more precise on what it is that's going to be delivered, and when. That would cut out a lot of the whining about whether they made it or not. It's got to be unambiguous, cut-and-dried, and not subject to endless negotiation after the fact.

"Because," he emphasized, "a commitment is a contract without the 'weasel words.' A commitment doesn't have any fine print. There are no loopholes to hide behind when you don't deliver."

I couldn't help but be amazed at what happened when simple Texas oil field logic was applied to the software business. But I had at least one concern right away.