[skatenerd]

Anybody on a team that always wants its employees to just go a little bit faster?

Meaning, taking comfortable estimates (on the order of 1-2 weeks) and just, by default, sliding them earlier by one or two days?

It's a subtle way for management to cope with the anxiety that is trickling downhill, without engaging in or admitting a period of Crunch Time.

[redwards510]

Not that exactly, but I've been repeatedly exposed to this:

Management: "How long will it take?" Me: "N weeks" Management: "Ok, you have N/2 weeks"

I've been told they actually teach this at business school.

[sopooneo]

My favorite manager, as far as I can tell, communicates N*2 to the client, then we either have time to fix unexpected bugs, or maybe throw in one new feature before delivering exactly when the client expected.

[alkonaut]

Not a problem, you say "in N/2 weeks I'll deliver feature Y, which is similar to X but half as complicated".

If that gets you N/4 weeks to do Y, or still N/2 weeks to do X, get new management.

[tomjen3]

Pull a Scotty and estimate N*2 or counter with a simpler feature that you can do in N/2.

Business school is just expensive signalling.

[candu]

Management: How long will it take? Me: 2N weeks.