Another trick management plays is they will ask you for super rough estimates. And tell you that whatever estimate you give doesn't mean anything.
So you play safe and give them a super rough estimates and a lot of buffer.
And now all of sudden you are invited to meeting to explain your super rough estimates. You remind them that it is just a super rough estimate. They ignore that.
Now if you are weak, they will get you to cut your estimate. If you are strong they will ignore your rough estimate.
So they create a deadline based on your estimate. You remind them that it is just a rough estimate and deadline seems unfair. They tell you just do your best, deadline is not a super strict deadline.
Of course, project scope is bigger and there is scope creep. You are unlikely to make deadline.
All of sudden you are being asked why is project going to miss deadline. They tell you you did estimation, you need to meet this deadline. Work extra hours.
You try to remind them that you were asked for a super rough estimate but you are ignored.
Also your teammates hate you because they think you promised the deadline and now they have to work over weekend to cleanup your mess.
I understand your point but we should not assume criminal intent without some solid evidence.
Back in days I paid for CDs with only open source software because internet was too slow. CDs were definitely priced for decent profit. The beauty of opensource is that we can do this legally.
I had a coworker who for whatever reason asked legal department if he could write a novel. They, of course, said he can but most likely the company will own it.
Having friends who are business lawyers, I asked them how is this fair. They said 90% of the time people who ask these questions are time wasters, and legal departments are so used to it that they send generic canned response initially. If someone is serious they will continue conversation, hopefully, also get their own attorney. Or they will just do it like most of the founders we read about.
Deadline driven development is leading cause of 90% of my professional stress. I would understand if deadline was due to some external factors like customer demands or security vulnerability. But I hate when I ask why such a tight deadline and the answer is well higher ups fault.
This is the most correct answer. In my company software engineers easily make more than project managers. People manager make a bit more than engineers but not that much. 10-20k more.
I wish we have this rule in the US. So many times I start getting spam from random companies that after closer look it turns out they are owner of some servicev I signed up years ago.
So you play safe and give them a super rough estimates and a lot of buffer.
And now all of sudden you are invited to meeting to explain your super rough estimates. You remind them that it is just a super rough estimate. They ignore that.
Now if you are weak, they will get you to cut your estimate. If you are strong they will ignore your rough estimate.
So they create a deadline based on your estimate. You remind them that it is just a rough estimate and deadline seems unfair. They tell you just do your best, deadline is not a super strict deadline.
Of course, project scope is bigger and there is scope creep. You are unlikely to make deadline.
All of sudden you are being asked why is project going to miss deadline. They tell you you did estimation, you need to meet this deadline. Work extra hours.
You try to remind them that you were asked for a super rough estimate but you are ignored.
Also your teammates hate you because they think you promised the deadline and now they have to work over weekend to cleanup your mess.