Re:Chrome was delivered without any sprints at all (2021)
by atoav on Wednesday August 16, 2023 @01:45AM
(#37143288)
As someone who developes software I can tell you that I have seen those three work:
A) if I am motivated, in the mood and it is my project I can program a thing in one go (e.g. if I have no dayjob, healthy breaks, time for sports, etc)
B) One of my employers wanted software, while my dayjob was something else. I told them I can do it if I get a fixed day on which my other responsibilities don't need to be taken care of. After half a year the project was finished. The biggest delaying factor were external partners who used the "sprint" model.
C) I do my current private project on two mornings in the week before work when I have time, it makes good progress.
If you need to constantly crunch to finish things you are either bad at management or you have perpetual bad luck, one of which is more likely.
Everything if done well takes a certain amount of time. And because things never go as planned and requirements change you can multiply that time by the value of pi. Additionally you should ensure that time is actually available for your employees and not something where they need to fulfill other crap (especially not your crap). If your employees are not totally incompetent (your responsibility again), you should be able to finish that project without a single hour overtime or any need to crunch at all.
The problem starts when managers confuse how long they wish something would take with how long something actually takes. Often managers promise things go faster because they don't dare to break the illusions of their superiours (or gamble on the slim chance that they can whip their team into finishing faster to then reap the fruit of that success).
Things take as long as they take. Multiply by arbitrary, pessimistic safety factors, you will finish it slow and steady on time, while still leaving space to try some things out.
A) if I am motivated, in the mood and it is my project I can program a thing in one go (e.g. if I have no dayjob, healthy breaks, time for sports, etc)
B) One of my employers wanted software, while my dayjob was something else. I told them I can do it if I get a fixed day on which my other responsibilities don't need to be taken care of. After half a year the project was finished. The biggest delaying factor were external partners who used the "sprint" model.
C) I do my current private project on two mornings in the week before work when I have time, it makes good progress.
If you need to constantly crunch to finish things you are either bad at management or you have perpetual bad luck, one of which is more likely.
Everything if done well takes a certain amount of time. And because things never go as planned and requirements change you can multiply that time by the value of pi. Additionally you should ensure that time is actually available for your employees and not something where they need to fulfill other crap (especially not your crap). If your employees are not totally incompetent (your responsibility again), you should be able to finish that project without a single hour overtime or any need to crunch at all.
The problem starts when managers confuse how long they wish something would take with how long something actually takes. Often managers promise things go faster because they don't dare to break the illusions of their superiours (or gamble on the slim chance that they can whip their team into finishing faster to then reap the fruit of that success).
Things take as long as they take. Multiply by arbitrary, pessimistic safety factors, you will finish it slow and steady on time, while still leaving space to try some things out.