alt Hacker News> Trim features, push date, bring in extra help, or crunch.
There are problems with all of these. The company knows they can sell X of the product for $Y (often X is a bad guess, but sometimes it has statistical range - I'll ignore this for space reasons but it is important!). X times Y equals gross profit. If the total costs to make the feature are too high the whole shouldn't be done.
If you trim features - the affects either the number you can sell, or the price you can sell for (sometimes both).
If you push the date that also affects things - some will buy from a competitor (if possible - and the later date makes it more likely the competitors releases with that feature).
Bring in extra help means the total costs goes up. And worse if you bring them in too late that will slow down the delivery.
Crunch is easiest - but that burns out your people and so is often a bad answer long term.
This is why COMPANIES NEED ACCURATE ESTIMATES. They are not optional to running a company. That they are impossible does not change the need. We pretend they are possible because you cannot run a company without - and mostly we get by. However they are a fundamental requirement.
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> This is why COMPANIES NEED ACCURATE ESTIMATES. They are not optional to running a company.
Sure, but even accurate estimates are only accurate as long as the assumptions hold.
Market conditions change, emergency requests happen, people leave, vendor promises turn out to be less than accurate.
And most estimates for non-routine work involve some amount of risk (R&D risk, customer risk, etc.).
So pounding the table and insisting on ACCURATE ESTIMATES without a realistic backup plan isn’t good business, it’s just pushing the blame onto the SWE team when (not if) something goes south.
I would settle for accurate estimates being a requirement if sticking to the estimate and allocations is as well. Every project I've been a part of that has run over on timeline or budget had somebody needling away at resources or scope in some way. If you need accuracy to be viable, then the organization cannot undermine the things that make it possible to stay on track.
Companies need accurate estimates like I need accurate stock market forecasts.
They don't NEED them, but better project estimates can reduce the error bars on other dependent estimates (e.g. estimated sales, estimated ship dates, estimated staffing requirements, etc...), and that might be useful to a business (or not).
If your business model needs the impossible then it's a bad business model. If your margins are too thin to absorb the schedule uncertainty then don't produce software.
Alternatively treat it like a bet and accept it may not pay off, just like any other business where uncertainty is the norm (movies, books, music).