Comment by cratermoon
3 hours ago
4) Only the programmer who is going to write the code can schedule it.
This item makes Joel's scheduling idea a no-go at most companies. Schedules are set by management or sales and programmers are expected to meet the date or get PIP'd.
This was written at a time were Software Engineering (not Developers) was valued more.
I had my first programming job around this time, and there wasn't scrum and all that crap. I was a Jr engineer, still in the last semesters of univ. And yet, we were treated like you read in the post: We were handed a feature and asked to do it. First estimate it , then ask the Design guys for UI and finally start coding it.
Now Software dev feels like sweatshops, business people think we are sewing jeans. And Software Developers became code monkeys.
Its quite sad.
I've been in the industry since before this article was written. Notice I said most companies. Back when programmers were valued more, we still didn't always get much say in schedules. Certainly more than we do now. Your term "sweatshop" is on the mark, too. Since the advent of "open plan" offices, we even look like rows of tailors sitting at sewing machines stitching together jeans.
Exactly the reason why such organisations tend to fail.
Are you saying companies where the schedule is set by management tend to fail?
The companies don't always fail, but the software projects frequently do. When was the last time you saw a headline about a massive software project and the outcome was that it was early and under budget with all planned features working?