Scheduling

Notes for chapter 9 of "Rapid Development" by Steve McConnell.

What's does scheduling have to do with Rapid Development? It has to do with creating an environment that isn't characterized by hasty, error-prone decision making and is conducive to effective planning, thoughtful design, and time-saving quality assurance.

Note: time planning is not to find a short-cut solution to the task, which always leads to a nasty outcome embrassing yourself, instead, it is to look for a effective way to the task with better quality.

1. Overly optimistic scheduling

This is a tradition in software development.

WinWord example: Bill Gates wanted it to be done in 12 months, it ended up with 5 years. The aggressive schedule came out with 4 project lead, 3 quitted because of schedule pressure, and 12 months to stabilize the product(normally 3 month).

Reasons for overly optimistic scheduling:

• External deadline;
• Manager or customers' refusal;
• Manager/developer underestimate the oost;
• Management/sales underestimate;
• New features piled up;
• Poorly estimation

Effects:

• Schedule accuracy;
• Quality of project planning;
• Adherence to plan;
• Underscoping the project;
• Project focus;
• Customer relations;
• Premature convergence;

Excessive schedule pressures on manager and developers.

• Motivation;
• Gambling;
• Creativity;
• Burnout;
• Turnover;
• Long-term rapid development;
• Relationship between developers and managers;

The bottom line: It just doesn't work.

2. Beating schedule pressure

Schedule pressure produces damaging. short-term thinking on 2 levels:

• Local level, short-cut-taking on specific projects and damage them;
• Global level, fire-fighting mentality about schedule pressure itself.

3 factors causing the pressure:

• Wishful thinking
• Little awareness of the software estimation tory or the real effect of overly optimistic scheduling
• Poor negotiating skill: developers are good at estimation, but poor at defending their estimate.

How to negotiate effectively? principled negotiation: face the brutal facts, and take win-win alternatives, keep the schedule, cost, and product in balance.

• Separate the People from the Problem: improve the relationship with ur manager/customer and be cooperative;
• Focus on interests, not positions;
• Appeal to true development speed: be firmly connected to reality and realistic schedule
• Appeal to increasing the chance of success;
• Invoke your organization's track record: not to make same mistakes again?!
• Invent options for mutual gain;
• Product: +/- features
• Resources: +staffing, tools, expense
• Schedule: coarse estimates, set goad instead of deadline, staged delivery.;
• Management: overtime pay, bonus, etc
• Insist on using objective criteria
• don't negotiate the estimate itself: talk about the input,.
• insist that the estimate be prepared by a qualified party.
• insist on a rational estimation process: nail down the details, don't provide unrealistic precision, reestimate after changes.
• weather the storm: endure the thunderstorm of a unwelcome estimate earlier, the better.