In listening to Ron Jeffries talk about Running, Tested Features, he reminds us of something very important for us to understand. Our customer’s job is to envision a product with more features than could possibly exist, sooner than it could possibly exist. Our job, as software delivery professionals, is to work with them to define a product that can exist by the time they need it and be “meaty” enough to satisfy them.

I believe this reformulation of our relationship to our customers helps remove some of the antagonism we tend to find when “they” ask “us” to do the impossible. That’s their job.