Re:Software developers describing their work in 1973 [video]
by TeMPOraL on Friday November 06, 2015 @02:20AM
(#10518205)
I really think d) is the most significant one here. It's pretty visible if you look at the problem structure. In a competitive environment, the first one to give a solution wins, at least initially. Since it's easy to hide bugs and unfinished features for the release, the ones who skip proper design will ship faster and thus win and preserve on the market. "Good solution today is better than perfect one tomorrow" turns into "worst solution that's still acceptable today is better than decent enough solution tomorrow".
b) Developers are bad at estimating the unknown unknowns that will bite them.
c) Padding estimates is somehow seen as a bad thing, probably due to...
d) Business pressures that incentivize everyone to quote the earliest possible date something could be ready, rather than the date it will most likely be ready.