Mike Dougherty-384281 (4/18/2013)
OCTom (4/18/2013)
For example, one of the best interview questions I ever heard was: "If I asked you to make me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, what would you do?" You can tell A LOT about a person by how they answer that.
What can you tell from the answer? I would consider this question as insulting and say so.
I think the reply to that would be: Sudo make me a sandwich (http://xkcd.com/149/)
Another good response (perhaps) would be "Do you have a peanut allergy?" (safety)
Or "What kind of jelly? What kind of bread?" (resource allocation)
Or "Do you want that for lunch or during our 9:30am interview?" (time budget)
Asking questions to further define the scope of the project is a hugely valuable step. Too frequently the eager beaver ends up as roadkill from assuming the deliverable then delivering incorrectly.
I guess it falls under the reality check: Are we solving the problem right and are we solving the right problem?
ha, my first thought to the peanut butter/jelly sandwich was 'who is this sandwich for', e.g who is eating it.
i know the question was 'if i asked you to make me a sandwich', but i read that as 'if i gave you an instruction to make a sandwhich rather than 'i want a sandwich, make it for me'!.