I’ve been using Basecamp to track projects and I really like it.  It’s simple yet powerful.  I just had to share something that cracked me up that I saw on their site today.

A message was posted telling that some maintenance will be happening tonight.  I love the wording they chose:

We’re just making a quick tweak that will let us store account settings more comfortably.

Here’s a screen shot:

As a software development firm, we use words like “a quick tweak” all the time.

For example, a client might ask for a new feature or update to a website and the reply is “Oh, it’s just a quick tweak.”  To most people, that just leaves them scratching their heads wondering what needs tweaked.     To that we could reply “don’t worry about that…the developers are the one’s doing the tweaking and the developers know how to tweak.”   It’s just a code tweak.  Developers, how many times have you had said that?!?

I also love the wording “that will let us store account settings more comfortably.”    Many times on software projects hindsight is 20/20 and you learn so much during the process.  Many times requirements change or it’s hard to pin a client down on exact requirements at the very beginning, so you must be nimble.    Sometimes when the project is done you may say to yourself “I wish I would have coded such and such a little different.”   You’re not 100% comfortable with the outcome.

The next time someone asks you what you’re updating, just be vague as you can and tell them you’re making a quick tweak to make you feel more comfortable.

If you’re not using Basecamp, give it a shot.  I really like it and I’ve researched a bunch of PM options.

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