The "telephone game", apartment style

In the technical world, it is a fairly common event that when engineers communicate requirements, non-technical people often misunderstand them. This also works the other way around, when customers communicate requirements, and engineers implement something completely different from what the customer wanted. As a result, organizations often implement a clear requirements process, and engineers learn to be very specific and clear when discussing requirements with customers. But precision and clarity will not help if the audience does not understand the terminology. Today, I had an amusing instance of where clear requirements caused confusion in the real world, because everyone in the communication chain did not understand them.

Heather had a leaking bathroom sink faucet for months, as well as a spraying kitchen faucet. I convinced her that she should have her apartment maintenance people fix it. I took a look at the problem, and being a homeowner, I knew exactly what the problems were. So I went down with her to the front desk, and she put in the service request. I told the front desk person exactly what needed to be fixed. "The bathroom sink faucet is dripping: the washers need to be replaced. The kitchen sink aerator needs to be cleaned or replaced." It was a simple request, and one that the maintenance staff would know exactly what they needed to do. The person at the front desk dutifully took notes and promised to get a service request submitted.

So tonight we came back to her apartment, and there was a completed service ticket status note. The status note read:

1) Check kit sink & drain line & disposal & dishwasher. no leaks found. 2) Tested dishwasher / working normal. 3) G. disposal is working normal.

Well, you can imagine my confusion at reading the status report, since it had no relation to our original service request. The checking for leaks in the kitchen sink was odd enough, but I really couldn't figure out why they were looking at the dishwasher or garbage disposal. I wondered if the maintenance staff had somehow switched service requests. But then I read the service ticket, and it all became clear. It read:

KITCHEN SINK IS DRIPPING 2) DISHWASHER HAVE TO BE REPLACE 3) KITCHEN SINK ERATOR HAVE TO CLEAN OR REPLACE

All of the sudden, the status comments made sense. When someone entered the maintenance request into their trouble ticket system, he or she took the handwritten note that the front desk person had written, and completely screwed up the transcription process. I can easily see a non-technical person seeing a note that washers need to be replaced, and thinking that it meant the dishwasher. It is likely they did not know how to spell "aerator" either. When the maintenance person saw "Kitchen Sink Erator", he assumed that it meant InSinkErator, which is the most common brand of garbage disposal.

Needless to say, we resubmitted the service request, and this time, I wrote down the problem description for the maintenance people. An hour later, both of the problems were fixed. But I found it complete hilarious how the "telephone game" had completely mangled the original request.