A nice post by Esther Derby (which I happen to not know personally). She describes three rules of communication - which are _very_ valid in conversations between client and consultant (and equally valid between managers and software-developers!):
- Never argue with your customer - you'll always lose.
- Consider the context: It does not matter if it runs on YOUR machine - if it fails at the customers`site!
- Consider that you might have different definitions for the same words.
Next time I visit my optician, I'll remember Esther, for sure!
