Deadline mirage

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How many times you are told this feature need to be completed by this weekend. Did you ever checked when it went live? Or did you follow up if the hard work you put to complete that feature, was really necessary?

Most of the time these deadlines are set without any solid reason. They are set because there is a need to set a deadline. In the command chain of software development where developer is the last cog does not have the luxury of questioning the reason for the deadline. 

I have burned midnight oils many times to complete features which went live after 3 or 4 months. Most of the time I did not know because nobody told me. But some times because of the nature of software, features do not work production environment. Early in my career I had a rude shock. We had worked hard for a week spending long hours in office to complete a release which had a deadline that weekend. We completed all the tests and delivered within deadline. We even celebrated. After four months we get call in the middle of night about an issue in that release. It does not work in the clustered environment. 

There are many measurements in IT industry. Most of these measures are there for a reason. Companies pay money for software. They need some kind of assurance that they are not taken for a ride. Metrics and measurements give them some assurance. They also create these unrealistic and unnescessary deadlines.

Agile advices to look for the value of the deliverable. Not on other measures. If a feature has lot of business value then go for it. Go by the commitment given by the team. Never impose a deadline on the team. You can always question the team if commitment is not kept. But if you impose a deadline then team will definitely going to miss dealine or miss quality. 



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