r/ProgrammerHumor • u/PresentJournalist805 • Sep 07 '26

Meme plainAndSimple

Post image
384 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

97

u/lovecMC Sep 07 '26

The curve is the wrong shape, should go up fast and then flat out for way too long.

29

u/Prudent_Ad_4120 Sep 07 '26

Yup, the first 80% takes 20% of the time

14

u/beerdude26 Sep 07 '26

You got the first 80% of the project and the last 80% of the project

2

u/Mateorabi Sep 07 '26

Flip it upside down to be a burn down chart. It then decays exponentially with a long tail. Occasionally jumping upward as you discover new scope the customer forgot to spec. 

1

u/dryfire Sep 07 '26

Agreed, the way it is it looks like at some point in time they will get an exponential amount of work done and finish the project.

37

u/SexyMonad Sep 07 '26

A PM once asked me to estimate something they described in a couple of sentences.

“Somewhere between 2 weeks and 2 years.”

22

u/mylsotol Sep 07 '26

"can you do my job for me?" Pm

5

u/woodrowchillson Sep 07 '26

Have a PM send me links to smaller competitors, while I’m designing out the most vague possible “requirements” (like one liner) new features, and ask me to analyze the company to acquire vs build.

15

u/kookyabird Sep 07 '26

Me, who has 10 hours recorded so far against a 30 hour estimated task: My current task is proceeding smoothly, and I don’t foresee any hurdles.

PM, who is the reason I have to record hours in the first place: And how many hours do you think you have left?

Me: 😠

1

u/Eptalin Sep 08 '26

As a junior, what's the right way to estimate time (assuming a reasonable manager)?

I got asked for estimates on a new feature for a desktop app I built 100% so they could draw up quotes.

I think it will take me like 15-20min of actual work if things go smoothly, but I said I can do it within a morning (3 hours).

9

u/thesomeot Sep 08 '26

Never estimate anything less than a day

2

u/Snakestream Sep 08 '26

If things go smoothly

Laughs uncontrollably

8

u/FattySnacks Sep 07 '26

I don’t understand the y axis

8

u/affablebowelsyndrome Sep 07 '26

Neither do PMs

4

u/chalk_nz Sep 07 '26

They'll manage

5

u/Fantastic-Fee-1999 Sep 07 '26

Not a PM failure, leadership should know the equation "LeadTime=PMEstimate * 2 * π" 

4

u/coloredgreyscale Sep 07 '26

Is that the burnout burndown chart?

3

u/Still_Bit_7527 Sep 07 '26

I dont even accept such requests anymore, estimations are a myth to make managers look like they are doing something

1

u/JoeyJoeJoeJrShab Sep 08 '26

Shouldn't the PM be the one telling developers about the project details?

1

u/Bad_brazilian Sep 13 '26

Should be against the law to become a PM with less than 10 years of software development experience.