Timeline roadmaps result in a constant barrage of deadlines resulting in:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤷🏻‍♀️" title="Achselzuckende Frau (heller Hautton)" aria-label="Emoji: Achselzuckende Frau (heller Hautton)"> Made up release dates
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="☠" title="Totenkopf" aria-label="Emoji: Totenkopf"> Development death marches
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤥" title="Lügendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Lügendes Gesicht"> Mismanaged expectations
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💸" title="Geld mit Flügeln" aria-label="Emoji: Geld mit Flügeln"> Missed market opportunities
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💩" title="Dreckshaufen" aria-label="Emoji: Dreckshaufen"> Building the wrong things
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😢" title="Weinendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Weinendes Gesicht"> Sad product managers

And it leads to a https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⚠" title="Warnsignal" aria-label="Emoji: Warnsignal">vicious cyclehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="⚠" title="Warnsignal" aria-label="Emoji: Warnsignal"> that can be hard to get out of:

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="1️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 1" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 1"> No one wants to be caught holding the hot potato, missing a deadline, so bigger and bigger buffers are given.

Developer thinks it& #39;ll take 5 days, tells you 7, you put 10 on the roadmap just to be safe https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🤞" title="Crossed fingers" aria-label="Emoji: Crossed fingers">

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="2️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 2" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 2"> Time expands to fill the work given.

This is called Parkinson’s Law, and is the reason you always seem to be running up against deadlines, no matter how far out they started.

It& #39;s a combination of scope creep and procrastination dynamics, and is unfailingly true https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😱" title="Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Vor Angst schreiendes Gesicht">

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="3️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 3" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 3"> Longer estimations create longer, riskier looking timelines.

Your execs are now even less comfortable giving freedom to build in lean ways, so try to tie down even tighter deadlines so they feel they have control on their resources and costs https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👛" title="Geldbörse" aria-label="Emoji: Geldbörse">

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="4️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 4" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 4"> There’s never room for discovery in here, no time for rework or quality, and so the wrong things are built, problems aren’t solved, and quality suffers.

You might be shipping a lot, but you& #39;re shipping shit https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💩" title="Dreckshaufen" aria-label="Emoji: Dreckshaufen">

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="5️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 5" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 5"> This leads to https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👉" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach rechts" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach rechts">Blame Culturehttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👈" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach links" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach links">, where no one feels safe being the one to make a misstep at work, having been told off for missing the last deadline and launching features that aren& #39;t solving anything...

This is the opposite of psychological safety https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👐" title="Open hands" aria-label="Emoji: Open hands">

GOTO https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="1️⃣" title="Tastenkappe Ziffer 1" aria-label="Emoji: Tastenkappe Ziffer 1"> .... people resort to giving bigger buffers and estimates for their work, in hopes they don’t get it wrong ever again https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😬" title="Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grimasse schneidendes Gesicht">

This vicious cycle loops & #39;round and & #39;round until everyone quits and you& #39;re left with a pile of junk for a codebase.

Deadlines = Technical Bankruptcy

Okay, I left this on a pretty sombre note, so I& #39;ll follow up with some ways to actually https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💥" title="Symbol für eine Kollision" aria-label="Emoji: Symbol für eine Kollision">break outhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💥" title="Symbol für eine Kollision" aria-label="Emoji: Symbol für eine Kollision"> of this cycle and get back to a healthier way of working:

Here& #39;s a thread I did earlier on ditching timeline roadmaps and moving to a lean format: https://twitter.com/simplybastow/status/1168531714832027648">https://twitter.com/simplybas...

And here& #39;s how to reframe the thinking around deadlines = incentive to work (hint: they aren& #39;t!) https://twitter.com/simplybastow/status/1321105770570809344">https://twitter.com/simplybas...