Often this video processing software wasn’t ready by the Superbowl, and this electronic voting software wasn’t completed by election day.

You don’t get sacked, you just get to work on the next death-march project. And for your two examples, it might be punted to the next Superbowl or election.

Hard deadlines are not often deadly.

So, what, it's only a true S̶c̶o̶t̶t̶s̶m̶a̶n̶ hard deadline if missing it means the guillotine?

> So, what, it's only a true S̶c̶o̶t̶t̶s̶m̶a̶n̶ hard deadline if missing it means the guillotine?

I mean, honestly, yes. That's kinda the point of "dead"lines, isn't it?

Election Day and the Super Bowl are both known years in advance. If we run out of time it’s because we waited too long to start.

Finishing your term paper the night before it’s due was a thing we were supposed to outgrow in college.

I guess that depends on your definition of "hard". Will the world end if you don't meet that regulatory deadline? No. Will the company survive? Maybe. Will you lose your job? Maybe. Are there other jobs for you? Yes.

When we can't change the deadline, it's obvious that we should shift the scope. If that breaks down, the problem becomes not losing your entire engineering team while the deadline looms.

Next game release must be ready for Christmas season, no matter what. Source: worked at EA.

I’m sorry