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Thanks for this, it's a great article. I have this problem with my boss occasionally, which is funny because he's a programmer. "Oh, you just have to do this an

by tnash 15y ago

Thanks for this, it's a great article. I have this problem with my boss occasionally, which is funny because he's a programmer. "Oh, you just have to do this and this, shouldn't take you too long." You're right, there's always those bottlenecks that crop up that you didn't expect. It's impossible to truly know all the limitations of the software you're working with. I work with Drupal, and it has A LOT of those problems. Sometimes I'll think something will be easy to do, only to find out that the popular modules I thought would work great don't cater to the specific use-case I'm working on. Then it's back to schlepping.

quanticle 15y ago
As bad as it is for non-technical managers to estimate, I've found that in some cases, programmer managers can be worse, especially if you're new on the team. Why? They already know the code, so often their estimates state how long they would take to implement the feature. They either forget or don't realize that you have to spend additional time to learn how the code works and how to best integrate your change. They don't realize that sometimes it's harder to modify software than it is to build anew.
- dshipper 15y ago
  Really interesting point here. Although I'd like to point out that I don't think it's necessarily being technical vs non-technical that makes it hard to estimate. There are probably non-technical people out there who have managed a lot of software projects and have developed solid intuition for how long projects will take. The real divider is experienced vs. inexperienced. But that's just a guess - I've never been managed by someone non-technical.
- tnash 15y ago
  Very insightful, that's my case I believe. I had never used Drupal prior to starting at the place I am now, and part of every project so far has been finding out that Drupal does not, in fact, do what I want. Luckily my boss is a good guy, so he's understanding when I don't estimate correctly.
abibibo 15y ago
One of my favorite quotes from G.E.D: Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law

by tnash 15y ago

quanticle 15y ago

As bad as it is for non-technical managers to estimate, I've found that in some cases, programmer managers can be worse, especially if you're new on the team. Why? They already know the code, so often their estimates state how long they would take to implement the feature. They either forget or don't realize that you have to spend additional time to learn how the code works and how to best integrate your change. They don't realize that sometimes it's harder to modify software than it is to build anew.

dshipper 15y ago
Really interesting point here. Although I'd like to point out that I don't think it's necessarily being technical vs non-technical that makes it hard to estimate. There are probably non-technical people out there who have managed a lot of software projects and have developed solid intuition for how long projects will take. The real divider is experienced vs. inexperienced. But that's just a guess - I've never been managed by someone non-technical.
tnash 15y ago
Very insightful, that's my case I believe. I had never used Drupal prior to starting at the place I am now, and part of every project so far has been finding out that Drupal does not, in fact, do what I want. Luckily my boss is a good guy, so he's understanding when I don't estimate correctly.

abibibo 15y ago

One of my favorite quotes from G.E.D: Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstadter%27s_law