zlacker

>>mattjh+(OP)
One thing I think is missing is an understanding of why there is such a top-down push for timelines: because saying "we aren't sure when this feature will be delivered" makes sales people look like they don't know what they are talking about. Which.... well.

They would much rather confidently repeat a date that is totally unfounded rubbish which will have to be rolled back later, because then they can blame the engineering team for not delivering to their estimate.

>>bgribb+Ir
If you hired someone to do some work on your house, and they refused to give an estimate, would you be happy?

If you had a deadline - say thanksgiving or something - and you asked “will the work be done by then” and the answer was “I’m not going to tell you” would you hire the person?

The no estimates movement has been incredibly damaging for Software Engineering.

>>iamfli+Kv
Painting a wall has no “if then else”. You dont need to test to see if the wall has been painted.

I guess a fair analogy would be if the home owner just said “Make my home great and easy to use” by Thanksgiving without too many details, and between now ans thanksgiving refines this vision continuously, like literally changing the color choice half way or after fully painting a wall… then its really hard to commit.

If a home owner has a very specific list of things with no on the job adjustments, then usually you can estimate(most home contract work)

All software requests are somewhere in between former and latter, most often leaning towards the former scenario.