There was once a software project that was run by an American company for a client in the UK. One of the project documents mentioned a deliverable with the date 10-05-2013. The client was, of course, expecting this deliverable to be completed on the tenth of May, but the team in the US was delighted to find that it wasn't due until October 5th. Fortunately, the American team lead (who also happens to be the author of this article) and the British project manager spoke regularly, had a good rapport, and avoided disaster, but they needed a better way to catch things like this.
My teams were spread across the US (month/day/year), India (day/month/year), and the Philippines (some of both, but mostly month/day/year). There was no consistent date format in use, and it was causing confusion. My solution was simple: spell out the month and use a four-digit year. It didn't matter if you wrote “10 May 2013,” or “May 10, 2013,” or “2013 May 10”. As long as the month was spelled out, or at least abbreviated (Oct 10 2013) there was no ambiguity.
One glorious day, I hope that the entire world will agree on ISO 8601 as the universal date format, but until that day arrives, at least just spell the month and we'll all have a better chance of delivering on time.
Join the discussion on Hacker News.