We constantly face problems from our technical team about their use of phrases like "That task is done" or "Woh ho gaya".

We have discovered, the hard way, that different people mean completely different things by such phrases. Therefore henceforth this is the corporate standard for what these phrases MUST mean if used in this company.

This phrase MUST mean all of the following:

1. The task has been completed on the server or production environment for which it was intended, not just within some trial environment or in the programmer's home directory.

2. The task has been tested, in the lab or internal environment as well as on the production system(s) for which it was intended.

3. The software or system which was involved with this task has been allowed to run in the production environment for at least 24 hours unattended.

4. After 24 hours of unattended running, the software or system has been checked in detail, all logs inspected, all files and directories involved with it have been checked, and all other related components connected to it have been checked, and all are found to be working flawlessly.

5. After this 24-hour-run and complete check, the server on which the software or system is running has been rebooted, and then a complete check done as described in the previous step, and it has been found that all systems are working flawlessly.

6. You have tried to think of all loose ends about the task, and have failed to find any. For instance, you have ensured that there are no temporary files lying around which should be deleted, and all files are in the correct, final directories where they should be. There are no active config files left in /var/tmp, etc.

7. If this task was part of a solution to a customer problem, then mail has been sent to the customer after all the previous steps have been completed, informing him that the task is complete. In this context, a 'customer' can be an internal employee of the company who had requested the task to be done. A copy of this email must be marked to the relevant newsgroup.

8. If this task was not for an external customer, then at least an email must be sent to all concerned people in the company about the task status, with a cc to a relevant newsgroup.

   This point in the process marks Milestone 1 of the task.

9. After mail is sent to the customer, you must wait for at least three working days for a reply and send one reminder to the customer every working day, asking for a confirmation that the system is actually working correctly.

   This point in the process marks Milestone 2 of the task.

In this company, you can claim that a task is "done" or "ho gaya" after Milestone 1, if asked by your senior officer. If not asked, and you just have to report status after completion, then you will report status as "done" only after Milestone 2.