And the seventh seal was broken, and an Angel of Lord started to negotiate...

Soooo, I'm developing at the moment (using my l33t dotNet skillz) but I'm the programmer of last resort. I'm also the project manager. In fact, I'm the project team. Oh, how I long for the heady days when I had two programmers and a tester. Now I've just got me, and well. Sigh. Someone to help with testing. We'll call her A. We'll call my boss, B.

A has been supposed to be doing my unit testing (which is like beta testing, really) for aaaages. She's had 'other priorities'. And yesterday morning, she came to see me...

A: I can't test this week.
Me: Okay. Well, I was hoping to get it out of unit testing next week so...
A: I can't test this week though. I wanted to let you know.
Me: Perhaps you could get to it early next week.
A: Perhaps. [pause] I can't test it this week though. This is not the only thing I have to do. I have other priorities.
Me: [patiently] Okay.

Time passes.

Me: I'm a bit worried that the testing is getting delayed.
B: Didn't A negotiate a plan with you to get the testing done?
Me: No. A told me she couldn't do it.
B: [crankily] I told her to negotiate a time, not to put it off. What exactly did she say?
Me: She said she couldn't do it this week.
B: I'll talk to her and tell her to negotiate a time with you. She has to negotiate because she has other things that I need her to do, but I definitely want her to be doing your testing too.
Me: Okay.

Time passes.

B: I spoke to A. I told her that she definitely needs to improve her communication skills, and that she wasn't negotiating before.
Me: Okay.
B: So, I've [heavy emphasis] directed her to negotiate a time with you.
Me: Okay, thanks.
B: If she hasn't negotiated a time with you by Tuesday, let me know.
Me: Will do.

Time passes.

A: Linda, can I speak with you?
Me: Yes, sure.
A: When we were speaking before, you said that you wanted to get the testing done early next week.
Me: Yep. [Yay! Progress!]
A: I can't do it Monday or Tuesday.
Me: Oh. [Crap. No progress.]
A: I can maybe get to it Wednesday.
Me: Oh. How much time do you think it will take? How much do you estimate you still have left to do?
A: Only a couple of hours.
Me: Right.
A: I can't do the testing on Monday or Tuesday.
Me: [patiently, oh, so very patiently] Okay, well, I may have to speak with B...
A: But I can do it on Wednesday.
Me: I'll see what I can do when I speak to her about your time.
A: Okay. I can't do it on Monday or Tuesday. I have other priorities. [See how we're not even having a conversation? See?]
Me: Right.
A: [And this is it! Here comes the negotiation...] Is that okay with you?
Me: I'll speak to B and get back to you.
A: [crestfallen] Okay.

Did you miss it? Can you imagine what would have happened if I'd said yes? Rains of toads! Swarms of locusts! Biblical plagues of not-getting-the-testing-done-fucking-ever!

I'm thinking this might be a cultural thing though. Perhaps I should have said, "It must be done on Monday" every time she said she couldn't do it until Wednesday. I don't know. It's fairly frustrating. Especially since it's taken almost three and a half weeks to do a day of testing.

Does anyone else out there in gentle reader land have trouble with this kind of negotiation?