Dirty Tricks for Training Software Engineers

From an email I got today. These were originally from a paper from an international SE conference. Yes the reality can be harsh...

1. Change the deadlines: The students should be told part way through that the customer requires the product at a date earlier than initially specified. There should be room for negotiation on scope, with only some [of the functionality ] to be delivered. However the students should not be offered any compromise in the first instance, all flexibility coming only through negotiation.

2. Present a 'different truth': The customer should say one thing one day and something else the next and deny that anything different has been said.

3. Present customers with different personalities: ...
In the [industry] training projects, one customer would be very enthusiastic, readily accepting any suggestion put forward [by the team] while another would be very reluctant to deviate from his original ideas. Of the two, experience has shown that it can be the enthusiastic customer who gives the most problems, leading the students into commitments they could never achieve with statements such as "Oh yes, that is a good idea and we could do the same thing with X,Y and Z too, couldn't we?" The students can be drawn into commitments well beyond their abilities to deliver.

4. Crash the Hardware: This may be a trick held in reserve in case any project team is doing too well....

5. Swap 1 or 2 team members across team - in the middle of the project.