Perspective of reality: put yourself in the client's shoes

Perspective of reality is different from where you look at it. Watching the lights during a storm from home might be funny, but at the same time, driving a car with the lights over your head and a wet windshield is a total different experience.

The same is true for software development. Developers might be happy because the awesome algorithm they used to solve a problem. Project managers might be happy because everything is on track and within budget. Although, the client - who signs the checks - might be really mad just because she still sees that awful red color on the application's user interface.

It doesn't matter how well you know things are going. It doesn't matter how perfect is your code base and how much time you've saved so far. If the awful color is still there, you're really pissing the client off. That's all that really counts.

You better start thinking as the client. You better start trying to put yourself in her shoes and start seeing the world the way she does. At the end, that's the only thing that will save your project.