General > General Technical Chat
Why projects take longer than you think
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Vtile:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on April 16, 2019, 11:24:10 pm ---
--- Quote from: AndyC_772 on April 16, 2019, 07:55:45 pm ---Half a day wasted because of an unforeseen technical problem outside my control, and the half hour I'd saved on building the board was gone many times over.

--- End quote ---

This is what ends up killing otherwise well thought out estimates - the "unknown unknowns".   Really the only things we can estimate reliably is work that we have done before, down to the last detail - and even that can go wrong!

--- End quote ---
New Firmware from HW supplier.
Rick Law:
The problem that typically cause overrun is "thought/planning process".

Most tend to think how things should go, then add up how long.  How it should go isn't often the way things works.  Unexpected turns in the corner, things doesn't react as expected...

Have a pessimist plan and manage the project progress, have an optimist manage the pessimist and the team.
floobydust:
When did the project schedule and deadlines become so absolute, hard-ass?
Estimates, ball park and jitter used to be acceptable. You could be behind or ahead a month, no biggie.

Now, I find employers bring out the Firing Squad if things are "late".
It's very bad for stressing young engineers that buy into it and work super hard to catch up to the dictated deadline. I see it burn some of them out. Very destructive, Mr. Musk.
Tomorokoshi:

--- Quote from: floobydust on April 17, 2019, 01:27:39 am ---When did the project schedule and deadlines become so absolute, hard-ass?

...

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My sense is that shift occurs in any industry when it transitions from "high-tech" to "commodity". For instance, in successive waves appliances, radio, television, video recorders, computers, and now internet applications are making that shift. During the transition phase, the goal of being a market leader with some feature drives the whole "time to market" push, followed by cost-reduction.

We happen to discuss it now because this forum is centered on the electronics equipment and software industry.

It's just that now there really isn't a "high-tech" class of products anymore - everything is a commodity. An iPhone, which would have been mind-blowingly high-tech in the '80's, so much so that such things were almost completely missed by science fiction, is a commodity.
SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: Tomorokoshi on April 17, 2019, 01:51:31 am ---
It's just that now there really isn't a "high-tech" class of products anymore - everything is a commodity.

--- End quote ---

That's an interesting observation.  We have gotten used to new tech very quickly and take it 100% for granted.  Probably because hardly anyone feels the innovations have threatened their livelihoods...   Will this carry on with the next wave of "high tech", when it arrives (AI)?
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