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We all work within the bounds of expectations to perform up to a certain level or hit a deadline.  But, I think more often than not, web development people have unrealistic expectations. Managers, coworkers, and we too put higher expectations on ourselves than we ought to.  Some of this is healthy, but there are certainly pitfalls when dealing with unrealistic expectations. 

The Main Pitfall, Communication

All to often the culprit of unrealistic expectations is poor communication. This happens all the time - the developer knows the work is not going to get done on time but decides to say nothing about it.  Then when it comes time for the final deliverable there is nothing to show.  It can be tough to set emotions aside, but you better communicate with your manager (or client) that you aren't going to make the deadline as soon as you know.

An honest explanation, communicated as soon as possible is usually all that is needed.  Just make sure you set the expectations level to a reasonable level the next time around.

Not Hitting the Deadline, Now What?

Once you've given your manager or client a good reason why the deadline is not going to be met, then the ball is still not out of your court.  You have to work with your client and manager to come to a solution, and each one is different. Let me walk you through a few scenarios that have happened in my career - some good, some bad.

In a larger agency the manager allocated more resources to the project to help out in making the deadline.  This only works if you let them know as soon as possible that things were not going as planned. Otherwise, if it was your fault in not communicating then you are expected to take responsibility and put in the extra hours to still hit the deadline.  In some cases you may have to put in extra hours even if it is not your fault, but this should be recognized and warrant a promotion or pay increase (at the very least, respect).

In a small company my experience was sour when dealing with expectations.  The boss should respect what you say to them.  If the boss does not budge and still holds you responsible for the deadline, and does not pay well for the extra time you are putting in - then it is time to leave the company (if you can) and find another job.  The deadlines should be made with you involved in setting the expectation-level at a realistic height.

In consulting, when I agree to a deadline with the client I make sure to indicate how strong or weak the agreement.  If there are a lot of unknowns then I give them my best estimate and let them know the contingencies.  I make sure to update them on the progress of the project as well as the dependancies all the way through.  When successfully following this model, there are no surprises.  Communication is key - I can't emphasize that enough.

The Main Resolution, Communication

At the end of the day, it all comes down to communication.  You should make sure to communicate as soon as possible if you cannot make a deadline.  As long as you are working hard and have the correct skill-set, your manager (or client) will remain understanding.  Going forward you must adjust and learn how to set realistic expectations.  Then you will be on your way to hitting those deadlines and making those who work with you very pleased.

I have been operating as a small consulting agency for my clients lately. Here is what has been happening:

1. Client seeks out my work.
2. We begin a working relationship.
3. Client needs more work done, so I find another worker.
4. I remain point of contact, but bill client for worker's time and my time to get more done.

This is pretty simple, but works out well.  The client only needs to go through one channel of communication does not have to worry about the work getting done, because I can hire up for what the client needs. 

The truth is, most clients are not able to find the right people to work with.  Since I have worked both in corporations and also in open source, I know a strong network of people.  This also saves the client overhead of finding the right people for the job.  They can rely on the work that I will deliver.

This has been a great shift of focus and I am privileged to be providing people jobs through my clients while being able to deliver more work than before.

An addition to my website is the top commenters page.  Even though the page doesn't look that complex, there is still a bit going on behind the scenes.

To get the top commenter count I have to thank Ryan Peterson in helping me write this custom MySQL query.  I used Group By to lump the results together based on the commenter's email address.  Then use count(*) to count the number of records in the group. Also used the NOT function in MySQL to filter my email address.

Mysql:

SELECT `Comment`.`author`, `Comment`.`id`, `Comment`.`url`, count(*) AS `count` FROM `cake_comments` AS `Comment` WHERE 1 = 1 AND NOT(`Comment`.`email`=\'m@marcgrabanski.com\') GROUP BY `Comment`.`email` ORDER BY `count` DESC LIMIT 0, 10

Since I didn't want to load all of the related comments at once, I decied to use a little jQuery and Ajax to show comments that they have made.

First, I put a span tag around the comment count, because without JavaScript you won't see this functionality. On page load I swapped the spans into links with $(this).replaceWith('<a>' + $(this).html() + '</a>');

Instead adding behavior later after append, I used a jQuery object inside replaceWith  so I can attach behavior to the link and I like how the code looks.

JavaScript:

$(this).replaceWith(
    $('<a>' + $(this).html() + '</a>').click(function(){
        //code here
    })
);

Using CakePHP's JavaScript object generator, $javascript->object($data); it was easy to send JSON back to the client and parse with jQuery. Here is the full source of the JavaScript file.

JavaScript:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $('.get_comments').each(function(){
        $(this).replaceWith( 
            $('<a>'+$(this).html()+'</a>').click(function(){
                link = $(this);
                $.post('comments/get/comments', {
                    'data[Comment][id]': $(this).siblings('.author').attr('id')
                }, function(data){
                    out = '';
                    for (i in data) {
                        prefix = data[i].Article.type ? 'article/' : 'answers/';
                        out += '<li><a href="' + prefix + data[i].Article.slug + '#c' + data[i].Comment.id + '">' + data[i].Article.title + '</a>' + 
                            data[i].Comment.created + '</li>';
                    }
                    $('<ol>' + out + '</ol>').hide().appendTo(link.parents('li:first')).slideDown();
                    $(link).replaceWith( $(link).html() );
                }, 'json');
            })
        );
    });
});

Update: I think I'll post the CakePHP code just in case someone is interested. Here is the controller, I use the RequestHandler component var $components = array('RequestHandler'); and the Time helper var $helpers = array('Time'); in the top of the controller.

PHP:

function get($type = null) 
{
    if ($this->RequestHandler->isAjax()) {
        Configure::write('debug', 0);
        if ($type == 'comments') {
            $comment = $this->Comment->read(array('Comment.email'), $this->data['Comment']['id']);
            $results = $this->Comment->find('all', array(
                'conditions' => array('email' => $comment['Comment']['email']),
                'fields' => 'Article.title, Article.slug, Article.type, Comment.id, Comment.created'
            ));
            $this->set(compact('results'));
        }
    }
}

I also turn debug off with Configure::write('debug', 0);. Also, I only use $type  so that I can setup my code to get types of data if I want later - more of a design pattern I typically follow.

Then in my view I use the time helper and output a JSON object.

PHP:

<?php
if ($result):
        if (isset($result['Comment']['created'])):
            $results[$key]['Comment']['created'] =
                $time->timeAgoInWords($result['Comment']['created']); 
        endif;
    endforeach;
    echo  $javascript->object($results); 
?>

To see in action, click the comments count next to someone's name on the top commenters page.

After years of working with developers and observing motivations - it seems I've generalized people into a few categories.

Please don't balk if they aren't 100% accurate, since everyone is different it is hard to generalize - but this shows the general trends I see of paths people follow when devleoping for the web.

Type A: Developers for Developers

The core of the coding world.  They have philosophical debates about code with each other.  From this group of people came all the programming languages ( C++, PHP, Java, Ruby, etc ). If they have any people skills at all you will see them leading conferences and in the lime-light.  Otherwise you can find them in password protected MIRC channels and in the deep dark caverns of corporations where no business person has ever step foot.

Type B: Developers for Client-Developers

They build plugins, frameworks and tools for themselves and fellow developers.  The focus is on developing bits of reusable code to accomplish client work more efficiently.  In the marketplace some are self-employeed, yet most of these people occupying full-time positions as team leads (or normal developers who exceed employer expectations). Their philisophical debates are found to be mostly around what are the best tools to use, but also on how to write the best code.  Community activity is high - as most have blogs, comment regularly on blogs and attend conferences.

Type C: Client-Developers

These developers use out-of-the-box software packages and slightly modifies them to get client work done. Their focus is on doing what the boss or client tells them for the day. May listen to podcasts, or participate in community lightly via blog comments or in-frequently posted to blog hosted at Blogger.com.  Will only attend a conference if it is local and 100% paid for.  In the marketplace you will find them working 40 hour weeks.  Prime motivating factor is family and job security.

Type D: Developers for Money

These people are hack'n'mash, "developers".  You will find them grabbing dreamweaver or any WYSWYG tool to, "make a million" via affiliate programs and any idea they can get their hands on to make money.  Visit their sites and see all types of ads - link ads, popup ads, pop-under ads (though some are finding smarter methods). Products are being sold because they understand the human condition and feed desire into a sale (conversion).

What type of devleoper are you? I am definitely type B.

After getting tired of not having business cards when people asked, I decided to buckle down and make some.

I sent the design over to www.overnightprints.com to get them printed.  They turned out exactly how I wanted them - A+ print job by my standards. These cards turned out great! 

It is exciting to have some business cards that are this nice. No more writing my email address on a napkin!!