Extended Defense Pack

the Pressuring forces lens to understand the other side, and the Laddering whys lens to understand more of their own reasons for keeping the estimate. Next, it is interesting to question themselves regarding their interests/power/rights to keep their estimate with the Choose your battles lens. If the estimator decides they are really keeping their estimates, they can then use the Candidate commitment lens to look for a wise commitment with the other side. If pressure continues even after using the lenses in the Minimal Defense Pack, it is a good time to use the Extended Defense Pack, which we present in the next section.

Figure 8.7 - Keep strategy lens.

Figure 8.8 presents the Perspective taking lens, useful when pressure is getting stronger. It involves going to a place of perspective, to free yourself from emotions that might impact you negatively, to see more clearly. The other side might be using attacks, stone walls, or tricks to make you change your estimate. An attack tries to intimidate and make you feel uncomfortable; a stone wall is a refusal to budge; a trick will take advantage of your beliefs in their good faith, deceiving you [2].

Figure 8.8 – Perspective taking lens.

In Table 8.7 we present examples of different kinds of these tactics in practice. This lens helps you neutralize their effects, by naming them [3], and clarify your thinking so that you do not yield to pressure unnecessarily.

Table 8.7 - Examples of tactics

Tactic Foundation Example

Attacks Based on consequences “Either you change it or there is no contract!” [2]

To your proposal “Your estimates are way out of line!” [2]

To your credibility “It looks like you are not so experienced as the rest of your team, uhn…” [2]

To your authority “I want to talk with the technical lead, please!” [2]

Stone walls Previous commitment “We have already committed with an earlier deadline with the customer. We cannot change that!” [2]

Final declarations “It is take it or leave it!” [2]

Tricks and other tactics

Manipulating the data The other side presents you with a list of features, planning to increase it later on the project. [2]

Last minute add-on A last minute new feature is added to the project, right when you thought you had already agreed on the commitment based on the estimates. [2]

Flattery “You are the best software team I know! I am sure you can make it to this deadline!” [3]

Minimization “But all we need is a small fix on this feature!” [3]

The Reality test lens, in Figure 8.9, is an aid for guiding them to change their perspective to the natural and logical consequences of changing the estimate and committing to

an unrealistic one. By asking the other side reality-testing questions [2], you can end up showing the point of your estimate. It is based on the idea that asking is better than telling [3]. We provide some examples of reality-testing questions in Table 8.8.

Figure 8.9 - Reality test lens.

Table 8.8 - Examples of reality-testing questions

Impact focus Example of questions

Schedule-questions “Ok. Let’s say we commit to the deadline you propose, without any changes to our team, to the list of features we have to deliver, and let’s suppose we are keeping our high-quality standards. What do you think will happen if someone in our team gets ill?”

Quality-questions “All right! Let’s say we commit to the deadline you propose, without any changes to our team or to the list of features we have to deliver.

We won’t have time to work on that user interface improvements we have discussed before. Do you think the users will still be willing to use the product without these improvements?”

Users, client, or their company-questions

“Right. Let’s say we commit to delivering the product according to your demands. What would happen to your company image if the product failed during your operations because we did not get the time and resources needed to test enough?”

Team-questions “Fine! Considering we commit to delivering all these features for the next release, how many overtime workhours do you think the team will have to do for the next couple of weeks? How do you think that is going to impact that high turnover issue we have been discussing?”

In any case, if reality-testing questions are not enough, you can also warn the people pressuring you about what can happen, especially about more technical issues that they might be unaware of. The last three focusing questions of this lens aim at helping you to identify issues to warn about and how to do it. A warning is a prediction about inherent consequences that flow from the situation itself and is different from threatening—which is about imposing consequences yourself [3]. The tone is also different: warnings are respectful and show the willingness to collaborate.

Finally, the Golden bridge lens helps you build one way so they can retreat from their previous pressure position gracefully, as we show in Figure 8.10. It recognizes they will not accept your estimates if doing it makes them look bad to others. So, you help them to build a bridge from their previous position of pressing for a specific commitment to a new position of accepting a mutually satisfactory one [2].

Figure 8.10 - Golden bridge lens.

In summary, if the estimator is suffering from pressuring tactics that could lead them to yield to pressure and change their estimate for no legitimate reason, the first thing to do is to use the Perspective taking lens. Next, the use of the lens depends a lot on the situation at hand, and the estimator needs to consult the handles of the cards to identify the most appropriate one.

It may be the case that only one of the remaining lenses applies or all of them.

References

[1] R. Fisher, W. Ury, and B. Patton, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving in, 3rd ed. Penguin Books.

[2] W. Ury, Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations, Revised edition. Bantam, 2007.

[3] W. Ury, The Power of A Positive No. Hodder & Stoughton, 2012.

[4] S. McConnell, “Politics, Negotiation, and Problem Solving,” in Software Estimation:

Demystifying the Black Art, Redmond: Microsoft Press, 2006, pp. 259–270.

APPENDIX C– THE BOOKLET (IN PORTUGUESE)

This appendix presents the booklet describing the defense lenses to practitioners in Brazilian portuguese.