Quote:
Originally Posted by roncri
Actually, software isn't that hard to estimate, this is usually what happens.
Dev: Going by the design spec we figure that it will take 30,000 man hours which will mean a release date of mid-December.
Manager: To long, how can we shorten the release date to September?
Dev: Either hire more devs or cut features "B" and "F".
Manager: No budget to hire more devs. Cut B and F and we will plan on releasing in September.
TIME GOES ON
Manager: After looking over the competition we've decided we need to add B and F back in and we also have a new feature "K" we want to add but we still need to hit the September release date.
Dev: Then I need more people, we can't make this date with the resources I have.
Manager: I don't care about excuses, I want results
At this point morale is in the toilet and several devs leave the team to look for work elsewhere.
I actually had a job at a very large software company (makes an OS and is based in Redmond) where I got marked down on my review because my estimates were always longer than any other Dev on the team. I then pointed out that on the last project I was the ONLY dev to make all of their milestones. Didn't matter, I was still marked down as not being aggressive enough when it came to estimates.
It really makes no sense to me.
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Your hints would suggest otherwise but I am positively sure that you have been working at the company I used to work for a couple of years. How else could you precisely repeat the discussion between me and our lead programmer? The only thing you missed in that dialogue was when features "B" and "F" were cut the deadline was set to June - as every clever manager knows that the project manager ALWAYS exaggerates so when I say "With insane amounts of luck, no vacation/sick leaves and everyone working overtime I can barely make September" he will *know* that I really mean "I can easily do it by June with both hands tied on my back"