4 ms·

Lie: Tell management it will take twice as long as you think. Tell your staff they have half the time you feel they need.

afarrell 8y ago
This is bad bad bad advice. You can't write maintainable software which serves medium-term business goals faster just by blasting Dragonforce louder and chugging more Jolt. If your engineers already think it will take X time, then thats a strong signal that it will take 1.2X-5X time. The value of estimation is that it lets you intelligently cut the scope of a project or focus your attention where it makes the most sense. Intentionally deluding yourself or your team is like trying to teach yourself how to write a virtual memory system after staying up for 36 hours straight. What business value is created by lying? What individual career value is created? None, just the destruction of trust.
BillBohan 8y ago
I agree with afarrell that lying is not advisable. Lying is a very bad thing. Convincing someone else to do a bad thing is even worse. The method I used when I was Software Development Manager was to ask one of the programmers how long he thought it should take (or estimate it myself). Then I told management that it would take 3 times that long. We usually could make that deadline but it was often close and sometimes a little late. I have since learned that it will take PI times as long as you think. Telling the programmers that they have half as long does no good. They will not write code any faster. It may even distress them and a distressed programmer produces less code causing it to take longer. FYI Consider carefully what I say; my first computer program compiled and ran in the summer of 1967. I have typed in a program while both Bill Gates and Paul Allen watched over my shoulder. I'm retired now but still work daily on a subgame for minetest.

4 ms·

Lie: Tell management it will take twice as long as you think. Tell your staff they have half the time you feel they need.

by sloaken 8y ago

afarrell 8y ago
This is bad bad bad advice. You can't write maintainable software which serves medium-term business goals faster just by blasting Dragonforce louder and chugging more Jolt. If your engineers already think it will take X time, then thats a strong signal that it will take 1.2X-5X time. The value of estimation is that it lets you intelligently cut the scope of a project or focus your attention where it makes the most sense. Intentionally deluding yourself or your team is like trying to teach yourself how to write a virtual memory system after staying up for 36 hours straight. What business value is created by lying? What individual career value is created? None, just the destruction of trust.
BillBohan 8y ago
I agree with afarrell that lying is not advisable. Lying is a very bad thing. Convincing someone else to do a bad thing is even worse. The method I used when I was Software Development Manager was to ask one of the programmers how long he thought it should take (or estimate it myself). Then I told management that it would take 3 times that long. We usually could make that deadline but it was often close and sometimes a little late. I have since learned that it will take PI times as long as you think. Telling the programmers that they have half as long does no good. They will not write code any faster. It may even distress them and a distressed programmer produces less code causing it to take longer. FYI Consider carefully what I say; my first computer program compiled and ran in the summer of 1967. I have typed in a program while both Bill Gates and Paul Allen watched over my shoulder. I'm retired now but still work daily on a subgame for minetest.