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As a manager over a new project with a ridiculous release date, I'm subject to the same political bullshit as everyone else. At this point, I'm of the opinion t

As a manager over a new project with a ridiculous release date, I'm subject to the same political bullshit as everyone else. At this point, I'm of the opinion that anything with a realistic ship date simply won't get funded. So all I do these days is commit to things that I am certain aren't achievable in the time frame on the table, just so that we can get the project off the ground in the first place. From that point, I immediately start to play the game of politics and showmanship to put together a narrative with the usual culprits for why a project is late. Shifting requirements, other teams that didn't deliver what we depended on, etc. Then I make more promises and estimates, playing the emotional card of "sunk cost" to convince upper management to continue funding the team rather than torpedo the project. Then we ship, and I quickly get everyone on my team promoted "because we shipped" before it becomes clear to upper management that we shipped something essentially worthless to the company. Because we're in a huge profitable company, everyone can jump ship to the next shiny thing, and whoever is left holding the potato on its way to deprecation just gets re-org'd when it gets canned. I know it's a bullshit game. But I play it well, and all the software developers on my team get paid and promoted because I am so good at it.

lifeisstillgood 8y ago
One day you might play it so well, you find yourself on the Board. Will you then argue that all new projects should avoid deadline dates, that no project should have anything other than an MVP and a iteration plan after that? How do we change the expectations?
natalyarostova 8y ago
Lol holy shit, this explains so much of my experience that I never even knew.
Techonomicon 8y ago
You're subject to the "same political bullshit" because you choose to be. You don't have to partake in it, but you do. You can choose not to, you can choose to try to bring the company around you to greener pastures - but you don't. You sound wise and such in general, but perhaps your time would be better spent making a difference in how people believe work should be done at a place that actually allows brewing better practices instead of lauding bad ones.
- thecatspaw 8y ago
  This would just result in them not managing any projects anymore, and "Yes we can do it in 2 weeks" Joe will get them instead
a_imho 8y ago
Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t
jt2190 8y ago
> So all I do these days is commit to things that I am certain aren't achievable in the time frame on the table, just so that we can get the project off the ground in the first place. This is exactly the point of the article: Organizations routinely fail to prevent untenable projects from moving forward.
jeffasinger 8y ago
What I don't get about your strategy: Why not work on something so valuable that even if it takes twice as long as the best estimate, with twice the headcount working on it, it would still be worth it? As a a manager, I feel that helping to find projects that have that amount of value is an important part of my job, so that if I am fighting for a project my team's working on, I'm actually in the right from a business case point of view, not simply playing some BS political game. If there are no projects that fit that value filter, then that's a completely different organizational problem.
bartread 8y ago
> I know it's a bullshit game. But I play it well, and all the software developers on my team get paid and promoted because I am so good at it. On one level I have to take my hat off to you because you sound like exactly the kind of manager - one who has your team's back - that a lot of people would want to work for. On another level you're part of the problem: you're wasting organisational resources that could be better and more profitably used elsewhere. Still, needs must I suppose, because the real fault here - as the article itself hints - is in the determination of what the most valuable use of everyone's time is. I.e., if projects are going to be late (and they are) then you ought only to deploy teams to work on the ones with a putative 10x ROI.

lifeisstillgood 8y ago

One day you might play it so well, you find yourself on the Board. Will you then argue that all new projects should avoid deadline dates, that no project should have anything other than an MVP and a iteration plan after that? How do we change the expectations?

natalyarostova 8y ago

Lol holy shit, this explains so much of my experience that I never even knew.

Techonomicon 8y ago

You're subject to the "same political bullshit" because you choose to be. You don't have to partake in it, but you do. You can choose not to, you can choose to try to bring the company around you to greener pastures - but you don't. You sound wise and such in general, but perhaps your time would be better spent making a difference in how people believe work should be done at a place that actually allows brewing better practices instead of lauding bad ones.

thecatspaw 8y ago
This would just result in them not managing any projects anymore, and "Yes we can do it in 2 weeks" Joe will get them instead

a_imho 8y ago

Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t

jt2190 8y ago

> So all I do these days is commit to things that I am certain aren't achievable in the time frame on the table, just so that we can get the project off the ground in the first place. This is exactly the point of the article: Organizations routinely fail to prevent untenable projects from moving forward.

jeffasinger 8y ago

What I don't get about your strategy: Why not work on something so valuable that even if it takes twice as long as the best estimate, with twice the headcount working on it, it would still be worth it? As a a manager, I feel that helping to find projects that have that amount of value is an important part of my job, so that if I am fighting for a project my team's working on, I'm actually in the right from a business case point of view, not simply playing some BS political game. If there are no projects that fit that value filter, then that's a completely different organizational problem.

bartread 8y ago

> I know it's a bullshit game. But I play it well, and all the software developers on my team get paid and promoted because I am so good at it. On one level I have to take my hat off to you because you sound like exactly the kind of manager - one who has your team's back - that a lot of people would want to work for. On another level you're part of the problem: you're wasting organisational resources that could be better and more profitably used elsewhere. Still, needs must I suppose, because the real fault here - as the article itself hints - is in the determination of what the most valuable use of everyone's time is. I.e., if projects are going to be late (and they are) then you ought only to deploy teams to work on the ones with a putative 10x ROI.