Chapter 11. Scheduling

This is, of course, where the trouble really starts, because the average software development manager thinks of his schedule as a working document, and his general manager tends to view it as a contract. This “subtle” difference has accounted for lots of grief throughout the years.

This has led to the infamous “two-schedule” game, whereby there is an “internal schedule,” purposely held tight—so the developers don’t use up all the time they think they have—and an “external schedule” for the rest of the company, which has the safety margin added on to the internal schedule. Frankly, I’ve never been a big fan of this ruse. It is hard to keep the two schedules from becoming known, and once that happens, neither schedule has ...

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