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Feeling stuck on a never-ending software project (programming.dev)

submitted 8 months ago by yournameplease@programming.dev to c/programming@programming.dev

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Scene: Surprise meeting with the project owner 0-3 days before the go-live date

"Hey team, the business and I have decided to postpone the project release by n=1-3 months because [they aren't ready for it / it isn't finished /regulatory reasons]. And since we have some extra time now, we can tie up all the loose ends on this project (i.e., 'we've added n+1 months worth of backlog items to the MVP')."

I'm still a greenish dev, so maybe this is normal, but I've had the same story going on for over a year now, and it's really starting to burn me out. In the beginning, I was optimistic. Now I just hope for the project to fail, or me to get off somehow, but this thing just won't die.

Anyone with experience on similar projects able to share words of advice? Do they ever end up working out? Seems there's a death spiral, since we are always rushing to a deadline, forgoing tests and quality but never cleaning up our mess because we're already behind. Yet I somehow feel like I'm the crazy one for thinking this 6-month "quick" side project turned 2+ year half-rewrite will have trouble meeting it's Nth deadline.

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[–] yournameplease@programming.dev 1 points 8 months ago

We are reasonably consistent with estimates, but there's this hidden assumption that 1 point equals 1 developer day. So even though we consistently get 20-25 points done per sprint, we typically cram more items to meet that 30 point threshold.

Oh, and of course you may end up dragging items sprint to sprint if they don't get finished.