Some good advice from a neat programming blog - Software is too expensive to build cheaply…. I have occasionally fallen into the cut-and-paste variant of this trap. Doing too many things at once…
It can be used for good or it can be used for evil. No, I’m not talking about lawnmowers or even COM’s single threaded apartments. Its the occasional habit of experienced project managers to quickly return requests to their clients for “clarification”. A project manager once described it using a dangerously mixed metaphor:
“You can’t drop a ball that isn’t in your court.”
If this practice is used to avoid misunderstandings then its (obviously) good. It can also be used in a defensive manner by contractors who have been hurt by clients who occasionally ask for things that they don’t actually want or are impractical (this happens quite a bit in government consulting).
The evil side appears when it is used as a delaying tactic or as a way to create a bureaucratic block that can be easily removed in an act of “artificial good faith”.
If someone uses this technique (for evil) on you - simply ask for some examples of the format they want information in. The chances are they don’t have such a format and will be shamed into being genuinely helpful. If they do have examples then you will be able to formulate your request in a more convenient manner. Win either way!