The Worst Question You Can Ask a Software Developer cover image
Delivery Management

The Worst Question You Can Ask a Software Developer

Managers ask it. Developers hate it. Know why that is and what you should be asking instead.

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Blake Norrish
May 12, 2021 • 8 min read
4.93 (15)
Estimation
Forecasting
Delivery Management
Definition of Done
Knowledge Management
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Summary

How should you handle employees working on complex projects in an organization as a manager? Perhaps you intend to know "'when the project will be done" but it's a bit unpredictable for the employees to define when they will be done. Blake Norrish in this text explains how to approach such scenarios to estimate the deadline of unpredictable projects like Software projects. He notes that instead of asking when the job will be done, rather ask "WHAT IS LEFT TO DO?"

Takeaways

  • As a manager, you should avoid asking the deadline for jobs that are not predictable like software development. Developers hate this question because their job is tangled with possible paths, loops, and dead ends.
  • Deadlines of when unpredictable jobs will be done can be estimated based on the amount of work given, the complexity, and the number and quality of the team working on the job.
  • Developers are more comfortable with the question "What is left to do?" than "When will this be done?"
  • Asking the right questions will allow the question to be answered in greater depth than if the wrong type of question was asked.
  • An excellent description of what is wrong about placing schedule first, and understanding the work at hand last. Th only example missing is the classic "60% done" kind of answer that is often presented with no clear definition of what "100%" actually means.

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