Lies Developers Tell: Interpreting the Subtext of Your Team’s Status Updates

Software and communication go hand-in-hand, and that dependency means that there’s a lot of it over the course of a project. Given that much practice, it’s no surprise that developers pick up on creative ways to deliver status updates that soften reality and avoid hard conversations.

Over time, managers can pick up on the tells, understand the subtext, and work towards creating an environment where some of these tactics can be avoided.

In this white paper, we dig into some communication problems common to software development — and why developers seem to have put their own language together. We’ll cover:

• What the lies sound like
• What’s actually meant
• Why they’re said at all
• How to avoid potential problems
• Truths that sound like lies