Unrealistic expectation

Unrealistic expectation go both way.

As a stakeholder, one can have unrealistic expectation with developers, lead to the path where team become defensive.

As a developer, one can also have unrealistic expectation with stakeholders. Most common would be, do not change requirement, or make a spec that sold.

This lead to the path where stakeholder become defensive and try to make it “not his fault”.

And one of the most common strategy for each side, is to blame other party.

(And yes, everyone, as a human, can feel guilt and can be defensive. Regardless of role and power one have)

And that open path from software development team to keep “demand” unrealistic expectation with each other.

At that state, team would use a lot of defensive mechanism.

At that point, team would focus on defending their ground rather than progressing.

At that point, even a realistic expectation will not be met anymore.

One can be too soft, and hence not bringing the best out of the team. One can be too harsh.

My point here is, I want to let you know that expectation is two-way street. There is a lot of people unaware of this. A lot of people think that one with authority is not affected by team action and expectation, which is never been true.

Maybe this is Karma in nutshell.