In my experience, it's usually way off because the people in charge change the specifications at the drop of a hat. Every company I've worked for has done this.

In my experience, it's usually way off because the people in charge change the specifications at the drop of a hat. Every company I've worked for has done this. No matter how much you plan and try to stick to that plan, things always change. Many times, even with these changes, you are expected to get the project done in the original time-frame. At my last company, they needed an e-commerce site done. I had the coding finished in roughly 3 months and we were just waiting on the design. We went through 3 artists and a design by committee (the boss rounded up everyone in the company once a week to give their feedback). 2 entire finished designs were also scrapped. In addition to all of this, the boss would change his opinion of it on a daily basis (I think it depended on his mood). A year into the project, they questioned me as to why the project wasn't finished. This was after I had been telling them for months why we couldn't run a project this way. A year after this, the project was finished. What infuriates me is that a company like this is still making money. Every aspect of the company was run like the above scenario. Over time, every good person they ever had left in frustration (including me).