21–30 of 98 posts
At least for private projects, this is not true. Nearly all private projects that I do are because I hate the status quo so much that the intrinsic motivation (and thus the felt urgency) is insanely high.
After the project was done, I was told that management didn't believe my six month estimate and put down nine months for completion in their timeline.
I finished in three. Thinking I had three months to work on personal projects, good off, etc., I eventually gave in out of boredom and told them I was finished a few weeks later.
In the end, engineers have to deal with actual reality. Don't shove random fake stuff at us - not to motivate us, and not for any other reason.
Deadlines aren't for tech teams. Their for anal upper management more concerned with quarterly financials than deliverables and stake holders who fundamentally do not understand how tech works. When someone asks for a deadline, the answer should be "it gets done when it gets done." But if you are a technical who is being asked, the correct answer is the real estimated timeline + at least 2 weeks, depending on complex…
If you cannot forecast whether it can be built in three weeks and then deliver against that forecast, you aren't doing your job.
> Wasn't agile created to solve this BS?
Agile sets regular deadlines for shipping to customers, that is literally the core idea. Instead of one big deadline 6 months from now, you have a small deadline every two weeks for the next 6 months. It's still a deadline.
I was given my first real important project and asked how long it might take for me to complete it. I thought I could get it done in four months but I was scared. So I said six months. After the project was done, I was told that management didn't believe my six month estimate and put down nine months for completion in their timeline. I finished in three. Thinking I had three months to work on personal projects, good…
I was given my first real important project and asked how long it might take for me to complete it. I thought I could get it done in four months but I was scared. So I said six months. After the project was done, I was told that management didn't believe my six month estimate and put down nine months for completion in their timeline. I finished in three. Thinking I had three months to work on personal projects, good…
If you draw a picture, you can spend 20 minutes, 2 hours, or 1 day and the quality will vary. Budgeting time should be a process of achieving team consensus about which level of effort will be applied for a particular job. You don’t need to lie to have that conversation.
Ya know, basic manager stuff.
> It’s completely ok to not have anything external happen when the deadline arrives! That doesn’t mean the effort to meet it was wasted. You built trust with the rest of the organization and you freed yourself to work on other things. Does it usually motivate people to work hard, when they know the outcome of the crunch is "more trust with the rest of the organization" and "now I can work on other things"? Sounds pre…
What's the point if nothing happens?
It doesn't have to be "we ship to a million users".
It could be simply "The CEO will then test the flow and give their feedback".
Then, those stakeholders have to hold up their end of the bargain as well, actually use the feature, and give thoughtful feedback. If they don't reciprocate, the future of all fake deadlines is in jeopardy.