I think part of the explanation for why the software products with estimates performed poorer in terms of productivity can be explained by parkinson's law[1].

I think part of the explanation for why the software products with estimates performed poorer in terms of productivity can be explained by parkinson's law[1]. Now, this phenomenon isn't always deleterious imo. I've noticed in myself that my work 'expands' in two ways: if I'm working on something dreadfully boring, then it expands through time wasted on hacker news or time spent on side projects. If on the other hand I'm doing meaningful work, then it's quite often that the work expands when I take on refactorings and minor additions that will benefit long-term productivity. If the work is indeed expanding in a meaningful way, then even though the measured productivity might not seem 'optimal' it doesn't necessarily indicate a big problem either. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law