"I'm not the expert on this, so this might be a stupid question. Can you explain to me ... ?"
Usually when I'm saying this I suspect there's a problem and I want "the expert" to be the one pointing it out. Then I can truthfully say, "Bob noticed that ..."
I'm a big believer in the phrase from the Extreme Programming world, "code smell". You can't put your finger on it, but something isn't right. I get "process smell" all the time and ask questions around it.
Usually when I'm saying this I suspect there's a problem and I want "the expert" to be the one pointing it out. Then I can truthfully say, "Bob noticed that ..."
I'm a big believer in the phrase from the Extreme Programming world, "code smell". You can't put your finger on it, but something isn't right. I get "process smell" all the time and ask questions around it.