Pilot fish is in a division office and needs the Internet proxy server hard-rebooted. But it's after 5 p.m., and the only person he can reach at corporate is the IT director. "He said he hard-booted the machine, but my terminal service connection did not end," says fish. "I asked him to push the power button again. He said he did. I asked him which button he was pushing. He told me the round, glowing blue one in the middle of the server that said 'Dell.' I had to walk him through removing the front bezel and pressing the proper power button."

Too late!

This program manager can't grasp the idea of gathering requirements at the start of a project. "At a project kickoff meeting, which he had neglected to actually invite the customer to, we had a lot of discussion around what the software we were creating was supposed to do," says pilot fish on the team. "I suggested putting together a requirements teleconference with the customer to clarify their ideas and goals." PM's response? "I was told we were already behind schedule and didn't have time to meet with the customer."

Hard problem