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?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.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 are requirements, we just don’t know what they are and also they change every sprint so good luck”.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.