And managers are bad at understanding how long it takes to do pretty much anything. Most effective flow I've found is: 1) ask programmer how long, 2) drop that

And managers are bad at understanding how long it takes to do pretty much anything. Most effective flow I've found is: 1) ask programmer how long, 2) drop that number by 1/3 and give them a deadline, 3) indicate that the deadline needs to be adjusted if anything unforeseen appears. Adjust ratio in item #2 as the team grows the relationship.