Yes, Estimate Software Projects
> Have you noticed how Apple ships most of their big bang projects at WWDC, a date they commit to far ahead?<p>Is this why so many Apple products have been increasingly low-quality? Instead of committing to quality, they commit to arbitrary dates because some bean counter decides quarterly profits needed to be higher.<p>I don’t disagree that we should estimate, but I think we should be realistic about just how difficult estimating software projects is, especially now that we’re “agile”, which really means “there aren’t any explicit requirements but there <i>are</i> requirements, we just don’t know what they are and also they change every sprint so good luck”.<p>If we want to estimate software, we need to have more predictability. I can estimate that it takes three days to fix a bug, but what happens when I pull those covers back and see an unholy Eldritch abomination? I could redo my estimate, but what if I run into an arbitrary quarterly profit-driven date? “Well, just get it done.” Then we nail some more legs to the dog and the cycle continues.