“To achieve great things, two things are needed: A plan, and not quite enough time.” — Leonard Bernstein (or maybe not)
Everyone needs a deadline. We see it everywhere, from meetings to planning the annual office pool party. Time constraints get stuff done.
For some people, a deadline provides a necessary kick up the arse — the incentive required to do some work. For others, however, a deadline solves a whole different problem: it is a much-needed excuse to do less work.
Ideas are dreamed up. At this stage, they are a nebulous body of ambition and hope and, at a push, achievement. Often that’s exactly how they remain. While a project is in dream stage, you can sprinkle in whatever you like — any nifty feature or quirky character or whatever. No one is chasing your tail. You are row-row-rowing your boat gently down the stream. And yet, despite all that rowing, you’re going nowhere.
This all changes with a deadline. That pressure gives cause to adjust your priority list, booting off anything that isn’t needed. Your boat is now filled with hangry passengers, all rushing to their dinner reservations.
A deadline gives you somewhere to be and, crucially, somewhere to not be. It makes things real.
And yet we hate deadlines. Why else would software developers spend their time moaning about sales folk? “Yeah, those clowns have promised a Wombat Wrangler, but we haven’t even finished the Dingo Dangler yet.” Don’t they know we are the Makers? The Talent? Am I Right?
The truth is, we devs need that sales team. Not only do they bring money — “Pffft, we’re above all that” — but they also bring the deadline. They make us strip back on what we’re trying to do. Damnit, they reduce our workload. They make the magic actually happen.
Don’t get me wrong, deadline madness is not fun. When caught in the maelstrom, I try to remember — there’s probably no need for a Dingo Dangler. Those Dingoes can dangle themselves.