Dear Agile, I’m Tired of Pretending (2018)
I&#x27;ve been developing software for over 20 years, and I still can&#x27;t estimate how long something will take me when I&#x27;ve never done it before. This uncertainty needs to become more than just a stick to beat developers about the head and shoulders with. Most of the time the PMs understand this, but there have been many projects where they just don&#x27;t get it. I have suffered great anxiety from being forced to give estimates when the truth is I have no clue. It depends on how easy it is and how many unforeseen issues I encounter. It was so bad that once my husband asked me how long it would be before I was done cooking something, and I practically had a meltdown. That&#x27;s when I knew it was time to leave that team. Can we stop pretending we can forecast the unknown? (edit typo)