Real-Life Decision Making -- Solution
You refuse to proceed unless you get details in writing from Mr. Stone.
Optical engineer Dick Johnson faced a similar situation. He could have easily chosen to draw up a written contract, but each situation is different. For this project, there was no time to stop and deal with legal matters. It was a quick turnaround that needed to be completed quickly.
The customer did not make clear how little time was allowed to accomplish the job. "In addition, he did not know in detail what needed to be accomplished, or even the general concept of how to proceed," remembers Johnson.
In order to demo the system that Johnson was hired to design, he had to have the whole project ready to go well before the originally stated deadline. In fact, Johnson remembers only having a month to do the necessary work. But he proceeded. And things went awry.
"In addition, as the project proceeded, he [the client] mentioned for the first time new requirements that significantly impacted the design. This made it necessary to redo some of the design work," he says. "I found that project very frustrating. Finally, after about four weeks of work, the customer cancelled the project. In the end, it was a lot of tense work with no tangible result."