Negotiating a release date is stupid
The few software entrepreneurs who don’t know anything about software development think they can actually negotiate a release date with their R&D team.
This vision is dumb.
A release date is no bargain, it’s a fact. If you want to ship on time, reduce the functional scope. In other words, remove the ‘nice to have’ and leave the ‘must have’.
If you still want it all, then accept it’s going to be ready later – and not ready late as a release date is an R&D team fact and no top-down decision whatsoever.
All I can say is that if you’re a software developer in a company headed by a guy who negotiates release dates, prepare your CV (and send it to me btw, lots of opportunities @ top ISVs currently) and move on.
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Timeboxing is a key factor. It is true for a release date but it is also useful at a 4 weeks iteration level.
Time boxing is one of the best practices of Agile methods; an element very appreciated by our development teams.
I discuss it in that post http://www.qualitystreet.fr/?2007/04/25/29-developement-offshore-de-literatif-du-timeboxing-sinon-rien
(offshore outsourcing and agile development context).
Dates are fixed. Each iteration we only adjust content, functionalities and / or charge and resources.
I don’t think that things should be as black/white as in your post.
Very often, developers want later release so there is no need for crunch time. Setting up release dates that are reasonnable are important if one wants to ever ship software!
jc-QualityStreet> you’re right on one thing: short iterations help avoid tunnel effects. But some software projects just don’t fit with agile methods – it really depends on the context and the environment.
Pascal> Of course things shouldn’t be as black/white as in my post – but I have to write in a certain, sharp and bold, way to express my view points, or I would never get anything written on this blog. Let’s say to answer your point that the developers I was mentioning work in a software startup and have invested their own money against equity in the company – so that they badly want to ship whatever the work load and heavy hours.