[ycombigators]

Sounds like a company is not adequately defining what the deliverables are.

Task: Walk to the shops & buy some milk.

Deliverables: 1. Video of walking to the shops (including capturing the newspaper for that day at the local shop) 2. Reciept from local store for milk. 3. Physical bottle of Milk.

[tbossanova]

Cool, I went to the store and bought a 50ml bottle of probiotic coconut milk. Task done?

[ycombigators]

Yes.

milk (noun):

1. A whitish liquid containing proteins, fats, lactose, and various vitamins and minerals that is produced by the mammary glands of all mature female mammals after they have given birth and serves as nourishment for their young.

2. The milk of cows, goats, or other animals, used as food by humans.

3. Any of various potable liquids resembling milk, such as coconut milk or soymilk.

[_9ptr]

In germany soymilk and the like can't be sold as milk. But coconut milk is okay. (I don't know if that's a german thing or a EU-thing.)

[alvah]

The last 3-4 comments in this sub-thread may well be peak HN

[throwaway422432]

Only if you can tick off ALL of the deliverables that verify "done".

[tbossanova]

Sure, I took a video etc like in the deliverables. That means it’s successfully done?

[ycombigators]

Yes, it's done.

You get what you asked for, or you didn't sufficiently define it.

[throwaway422432]

And when on the receiving end of the deliverables list, it's always a good idea to make sure they are actually deliverable.

There's nothing worse than a task where you can deliver one item and then have to rely on someone else to be able to deliver a second. Was once in a role where performance was judged on closing tasks; getting the burn-down chart to 0, and also having it nicely stepped. Was given a good tip to make sure each task had one deliverable and where possible—be completed independent of any other task.

[moralestapia]

Yes.

Why would you write down "Buy Milk", then go buy whatever thing you call milk, then come back home and be confused about it?

Only an imbecile would get stuck in such a thing.

[tbossanova]

Well, I think in this example someone else wrote down “buy milk”. Of course I would generally know what that’s likely to mean, and not buy the ridiculous thing. But someone from a culture that’s not used to using milk could easily get confused and buy the wrong thing, to further the example. I guess my point was that it’s never possible to completely unambiguously define when a task is done without assuming some amount of shared knowledge with the person completing the task that lets them figure out what you meant and fill in any gaps