alt Hacker NewsI largely agree.
Another way to say this is that an estimate becomes a commitment to not learn.
Re-planning is seen as failure by [management].
Re-planning is what happens when you learn that a previous assumption was not correct.
You should be encouraging learning, as this is THE cornerstone of software development.
Replies
Bjartr • yesterday at 8:23 PM
When you make a plan, you have the least information you will ever have about the goal/problem.
thfuran • yesterday at 8:31 PM
Re-planning when you gain enough information to know you need to isn’t a failure — not re-planning then would be — but repeatedly finding yourself re-planning when you had or should have had that information before the initial plan is.
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Re-planning in isolation is not a failure. I think re-planning is a failure when nothing is learned from previous assumptions not being correct, which usually leads to serial re-planning. I've seen this pattern form at practically every company I've worked for, in particular whenever there's a merger or a private equity buy-out. More often than not, this is ironically caused by leadership failing to learn from previous assumptions because they're too busy chasing the shiny new bobble of the week, but the blame still gets diffused across the organization.