Principles of Uncertainty

Uncertainty the only certainty in software development projects

I was conversing with some colleagues today and the subject of 'high level' estimates came up. We were snidely commenting (as is our prerogative) on the tendency of our superiors to ask for these and our discomfort with providing them.

Programmers have an intense dislike of getting things wrong. It's kind of paralyzing because we never want to discuss anything in depth that we're not 100% certain of.

It's comical to watch a smart developer give a high level time or complexity estimate to management. He'll be aloof and careful not to say anything incriminating. Probably because it feels like an interrogation. Usually his interrogators will press for something concrete to write down on a piece of paper that can be used in planning, but it's not easy to get this from the developer.

I think the problem is that the kind of people that like software development and choose it as a career are naturally petrified of being wrong. This fear is compounded by the belief that for any problem there may be a number of ways to solve it, but we want to find the perfect one.

We also have a distrust for 'high level' anything and prefer not to be part of that whole deal. We'd much sooner spend weeks researching and analyzing the problem until we understand every detail, then deliver the answer...

Be ready in a couple days.