I rarely say no to customers in consulting and when I was working in the real world to managers or stakeholders.
Instead I gave them a choice. Every project has three facets - time, cost, and budget - and framed their asks in terms of trade offs.
As I’ve gotten more experienced, I can now add security, maintainability (technical people), legal risks, availability, ongoing maintenance costs, affect on future velocity, “bus factor” risks (“we don’t have time for training, documentation and knowledge transfers”), and is does the ask lead to a competitive differentiator (“does it make the beer taste better”)
Instead I gave them a choice. Every project has three facets - time, cost, and budget - and framed their asks in terms of trade offs.
As I’ve gotten more experienced, I can now add security, maintainability (technical people), legal risks, availability, ongoing maintenance costs, affect on future velocity, “bus factor” risks (“we don’t have time for training, documentation and knowledge transfers”), and is does the ask lead to a competitive differentiator (“does it make the beer taste better”)