软件开发是瓜熟蒂落，不能强迫

预测一个任务什么时候能够全部完成是十分困难的。所有我见过的软件工程师都为此伤透脑筋，包括我自己。有些人会过高的估计开发某个功能需要消耗的时间，而另一些人会极大的低估他们手头的工作量。但是，这是一个真正存在的问题吗？不，这其实并不是个问题。

不知道是谁发明了人为的给一个事情设最后期限，这毫无意义。即使是你做一件事情，所有的工具都在你的桌面上，这个事情也不该有最后期限。我们的目标是尽可能快的让软件发布。就像是一场足球比赛，当你的对手1：0领先、只剩下5分钟时，全队所要做的是极尽全力尽快得分。而在这压力巨大的气氛中，队员应该做的就是站好位，发挥自己的水平。没有人能够要求队员在什么时候要进第一球。比赛前没有，更不是在比赛中。

我坚信，经理们其实不需要太为最后期限担心。他们应该做的是确保所有队员知道目标是什么，如何实现目标，并确保所有队员能团结起来共同努力。一个团队团结努力，不论工作如何进展，只要都保持超级的工作效率就好。真正唯一的测量标准就是：工作效率。

英文原版：

It ships when it ships

APR 23, 2013

Predicting when a task will be completed is hard. Engineers have struggled with this everywhere I’ve worked, including me. Some overestimate the time needed to build a certain feature and others might greatly underestimate their actual work load. But is this even a real problem? No, not really.

Not sure who started these artificial deadlines for things, but they make no sense. Even when dealing with an all-hands-on-deck situation, there isn’t a real deadline in the room. The goal is to ship a fix asap. Similar to a soccer game when your opponent leads 0:1 and there are only 5 minutes left on the clock. The team will try everything to score asap. But outside of such pressured situations the team simply focuses on ball possession and making good plays. There is nobody asking the players at what time they will score the first goal. Not before the game and especially not during it.

I believe managers shouldn’t worry about deadlines so much. They should simply make sure that everyone knows what goals the team is trying to achieve, how to get there and ensure the players play well together. A team that works together extremely well can’t help but be super productive. And that’s the only true measure: Productivity.

To clarify: There are situations where deadlines are non negotiable, but establishing deadlines for the sake of having deadlines isn’t an approach that works well. Try establishing goals, because that’s what these things really are.