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388 points replyifuagree | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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nmstoker ◴[] No.37966119[source]
I get the point, and with irresponsible parties (as is fairly widespread in most companies) there's a real risk here.

However the analogy of a meteorologist seems poor as that job is focused on predicting the weather - the typical dev is focused on operating in that weather and comparatively inexperienced in predicting with great accuracy.

What's frustrating as a stakeholder is ludicrous estimates, which don't even start with the work time, let alone end up with a realistic duration. This is particularly true (and frustrating) at the micro task level, an area I'm often requiring items that take at most 30 minute to complete and are usually things I could do in less time if only I had access... You get a weeks long estimate back, even when it's incurring a serious cost in production and falls in the drop everything category (which obviously one wants to avoid but does come up). I get that none of those 30 minute tasks will take 30 minute alone as there's testing and documentation to add but the more bs level the estimate, the more it damages the trust relationship.

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1. replyifuagree ◴[] No.37968617[source]
I promise you what you are experiencing is a management problem, not a dev problem. Devs absolutely love executing on creating easy to code software solutions to well defined problems. Many of us will work the weekend on that kind of work just to get the dopamine rush.