You don’t need a deadline to establish priorities and ensure the team is focused on those priorities. Nor does a deadline actually prevent procrastination. We all have had homework due that we have rushed to finish because we were watching TV, playing games, out with friends, or whatever. So too with software engineering.
Anyway, if you are using sprints, there actually are due dates. It’s just there are a lot of them occurring in rapid succession, and we don’t commit to what we’ll finish in the following due date until after the impending one.
Re:Yes, Estimate Software Projects
by jasonpeacock on Monday October 21, 2019 @09:16PM
(#21319421)
> Without a deadline, engineers waste time working on stuff that is fun and interesting to them and not the hard stuff that is needed to ship a product across the finish line.
Why is the threat of a deadline required to ship product?
It makes everyone focus on what is most important.
Are those features really necessary for the release? Can we change the requirements to accomplish the goal easier? Is it important enough that we should delay it?
Without a deadline, engineers waste time working on stuff that is fun and interesting to them and not the hard stuff that is needed to ship a product across the finish line.
I do that along with every other engineer I know. It is human nature.