A lot of ink has been spilled on this topic.
The solution is simple: get better at estimating.
Software engineers act as if they're the only ones in the world who are asked to estimate and then held accountable.
It's a skill issue.
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The solution is simple: get better at estimating.
Software engineers act as if they're the only ones in the world who are asked to estimate and then held accountable.
It's a skill issue.
One can give very accurate estimates of how long it takes to build a brick wall because building brick walls takes time and labor. You can make highly accurate estimates of how long it takes based on how long it has taken to do the exact same task in the past.
But suppose I laid one brick and then could copy-paste it, then copy-paste that into four bricks, then eight, until I have a wall. Then I can copy-paste the entire wall. Once I have a building I can copy-paste the entire building in five seconds.
The ability to copy and paste an entire building is very valuable but how long does it take to create that copyable template? No one knows because it has never been done before.