4 ms·

There is nothing wrong with working to dead lines estimating and planing development and releasing software thats good enough not perfect. The problem is when

There is nothing wrong with working to dead lines estimating and planing development and releasing software thats good enough not perfect. The problem is when people start trying to change the plan half way through execution, non tech people will constantly try to do this because they are clueless its the project leads job to tell them no. When your manager asks you "if anything can be done to pull those dates in." you say "no" problem solved, until your line manager goes to the big boss who asks the same thing and do you know what your answer is? Thats right its "no". When the big boss says you have to do something then tell him "I cant magic more time you need to cut features", big boss and manager will argue their point but unless you can do magic your point remains the same. I know its scary being blunt with your big boss but as a senior developer thats your job.

Sparkyte 5y ago
The magical scope creep fairy wants to talk to you. :)
hobs 5y ago
Ah, you are one of those "difficult developers" :) Be blunt with your boss but also dont forget to quit if they dont change their behaviors. Just "finishing up" a project of "6 months" where we went from reasonable to unreasonable scope, and I was the only one that said it was unlikely we were going to finish on time, weird that I was the only non-contractor.... Almost a year a shoddy version that's just copying data from their existing product is only mostly a buggy mess!
taneq 5y ago
> I know its scary being blunt with your big boss but as a senior developer thats your job. This. They could hire any random chump to say they're right. If you're the expert, they hired you to tell them whether they're right. Of course, not all managers understand this but the sooner you realise you're working for one who doesn't, the better.
danmaz74 5y ago
Well, sometimes you can reduce scope to meet a deadline. It's often not advisable, but it's also sometimes necessary.
wefarrell 5y ago
The problem is that nothing is ever so clear cut and dry and it's always _possible_ to cut corners to rush something out, but rarely is it the right thing to do. Everyone should brush their teeth and look both ways before crossing the street, but when being chased by a killer it might make sense to skip these things. However that should be extremely rare. The challenge is that there are no hard rules and it's highly dependent on the context. That requires mutual understanding and trust between the business and development.
ilaksh 5y ago
The issue is that many people are in a situation where the manager will either decide to just not listen and promise those dates or features anyway or they will be demoted,.fired or otherwise penalized for not going along with it. That's a problem because many people do not have the luxury of quitting for another job easily.

Sparkyte 5y ago

The magical scope creep fairy wants to talk to you. :)

hobs 5y ago

Ah, you are one of those "difficult developers" :) Be blunt with your boss but also dont forget to quit if they dont change their behaviors. Just "finishing up" a project of "6 months" where we went from reasonable to unreasonable scope, and I was the only one that said it was unlikely we were going to finish on time, weird that I was the only non-contractor.... Almost a year a shoddy version that's just copying data from their existing product is only mostly a buggy mess!

taneq 5y ago

> I know its scary being blunt with your big boss but as a senior developer thats your job. This. They could hire any random chump to say they're right. If you're the expert, they hired you to tell them whether they're right. Of course, not all managers understand this but the sooner you realise you're working for one who doesn't, the better.

danmaz74 5y ago

Well, sometimes you can reduce scope to meet a deadline. It's often not advisable, but it's also sometimes necessary.

wefarrell 5y ago

The problem is that nothing is ever so clear cut and dry and it's always _possible_ to cut corners to rush something out, but rarely is it the right thing to do. Everyone should brush their teeth and look both ways before crossing the street, but when being chased by a killer it might make sense to skip these things. However that should be extremely rare. The challenge is that there are no hard rules and it's highly dependent on the context. That requires mutual understanding and trust between the business and development.

ilaksh 5y ago

The issue is that many people are in a situation where the manager will either decide to just not listen and promise those dates or features anyway or they will be demoted,.fired or otherwise penalized for not going along with it. That's a problem because many people do not have the luxury of quitting for another job easily.