[lug] Developer abuse

[Bill Thoen]

On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Terry Branaman wrote:

> Another problem (for developers) that I have run into is having
> deadlines set by non-technical people, with no input from anybody
> remotely involved in trying to meet that deadline.

A little quote from "Painless Software Schedules" at
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000245.html by Joel Spolsky:

"If your manager makes you reduce an estimate, here's what to do. Create a
new column in the schedule called Rick's Estimate (assuming your name is
Rick, of course.) Put your estimate in there. Let your manager do whatever
she wants with the Curr Est column. Ignore your manager's estimates. When
the project is done, see who was closer to reality. I've found that just
threatening to do this works wonders, especially when your manager
realizes that they've just gotten into a contest to see how slowly you can
work!

Why do inept managers try to get programmers to reduce estimates?"


- Bill Thoen