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LifeinAsia - 4:36 pm on Dec 23, 2008 (gmt 0)
Trying to think of an example... Okay, let's say you write a letter and drop it off at the post office for delivery. You get home and realize you put the wrong address ("123 Main Street" instead of "321 Main Street"). So you go back to the post office and ask the clerk to get your letter so you can change the address. It's such a simple request and you can't understand why the clerk refuses to do it. So then you call the post office in the city where the letter is being delivered and ask them to change the address when they get the letter. You can't understand why the guy hung up on you- it's just a little change! Sometimes the best way to try to explain it is that the "little" functionality can not just be added on- the entire code must be entirely rewritten to account for the change. (But they most likely won't understand that either.)
About the only way I have found (and it doesn't always work) is to try to find an example in their own industry- something that an "outsider" would consider a trivial change, but actually entails a lot more work.