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The problem is that once upon a time, someone wrote a management book that said that setting deadlines can push people to work harder — and to an extent that's

The problem is that once upon a time, someone wrote a management book that said that setting deadlines can push people to work harder — and to an extent that's true — but if you take that idea to the extreme and every week is an important deadline, eventually the magic runs out and you end up just burning everyone out. Good managers know this of course, and work hard to find some kind of a balance between their team, higher management, external parties etc. Bad managers operate on auto and do whatever is currently en vogue.

ozim 3y ago
Problem with sprints is some people treat those as deadlines- while end of sprint is just a checkpoint. What was delivered what was not delivered- then we can ask why something wasn’t delivered. We can ask is what we build still relevant? Maybe we need to cut some.
giancarlostoro 3y ago
Very important to identify if some issues will take more than one sprint and still break it down as much as possible and figure out what needs to be stubbed out that first sprint. I am not huge on the process, but too many people dont take full advantage of what seem like obvious ways to keep yourself out of trouble, and if for some awful reason you miss the deadline regardless, document everything that has been finished, and create new follow up tasks for the next sprint. No need to freak out and continue a task over unless it was one of the last tasks assigned. I prefer to just try and simplify the process and ensure people dont feel more stress than is healthy. Deadlines are always ideal, they are never truly sensible because you cannot foresee a problem down the road with the design until enough ground has been broken. I have seen managers ask near the end who approved an approach and yet they are the only ones in the room who do that, but nobody wants to tell the guy who can fire you that they in fact made the bad call.

ozim 3y ago

Problem with sprints is some people treat those as deadlines- while end of sprint is just a checkpoint. What was delivered what was not delivered- then we can ask why something wasn’t delivered. We can ask is what we build still relevant? Maybe we need to cut some.

giancarlostoro 3y ago

Very important to identify if some issues will take more than one sprint and still break it down as much as possible and figure out what needs to be stubbed out that first sprint. I am not huge on the process, but too many people dont take full advantage of what seem like obvious ways to keep yourself out of trouble, and if for some awful reason you miss the deadline regardless, document everything that has been finished, and create new follow up tasks for the next sprint. No need to freak out and continue a task over unless it was one of the last tasks assigned. I prefer to just try and simplify the process and ensure people dont feel more stress than is healthy. Deadlines are always ideal, they are never truly sensible because you cannot foresee a problem down the road with the design until enough ground has been broken. I have seen managers ask near the end who approved an approach and yet they are the only ones in the room who do that, but nobody wants to tell the guy who can fire you that they in fact made the bad call.