I still am in the small shops and we have taken advantage of the fast turn-around inherant in Perl to produce 0.1 style versions of what is requested. This prompts the user to respond with more details. A rapid developement cycle gets to the end result faster with more end-user satisfaction (especially if they feel they've been in on the consultation process). It's also a defensive manouver in an environment where we get a lot of spurious requests.

The politics of the situation is that we have to be seen to deal with poorly thought-out demands, with few staff, or be labeled obstructionists to management by those with an axe to grind. Our best weapon is a quick response, placing the onus back on the user to specify what they really want. That, and a web-based requisition system that users are encouraged to use to track progress on their whim^Wrequests.

Ea :wq

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