The saddest part of people's education in this field is that no one tells us the details about software development. Programming is about computers, but softwa

The saddest part of people's education in this field is that no one tells us the details about software development. Programming is about computers, but software development is about people. When I was starting out no one explained to me that everything at work is a negotiation. Always being agreeable isn't good for you and really not the person you're talking to either. You need to come to an understanding with them that if they are asking for something, you are going to define for them what they should expect in return. At times, sure, you say, "Yeah that's no big deal." and other times, it's "This isn't a wise decision we need to take another path." Most of the time it's somewhere in the middle and you need to understand how to talk to someone to come to a compromise and get what you want to. I worked for a company where one of the owners signed a contract that said we would do "some" enhancements to an existing system, and the client defined when the project was complete. Amazingly the executives were dumbfounded when the client took full advantage of the word "some" and wouldn't pay until everything they wanted was complete.