Timelines

Our timelines are realistic and well-planned.

Why are realistic timelines so important for developer experience?

Realistic timelines directly impact developer well-being, code quality, and team retention. When developers consistently work against unrealistic deadlines, several negative outcomes emerge:

Increased stress and burnout: Constant pressure to meet impossible deadlines leads to unsustainable work patterns and eventual burnout.

"In smaller organizations like ours, both in my previous company and my current one, there's unfortunately too much pressure on immediate deliverables—too many things that need to be delivered 'yesterday.'"

VP of Software Engineering at Software Development Company

Reduced code quality: When teams rush to meet deadlines, they take shortcuts that create technical debt.

Unpredictable delivery: Teams start missing deadlines or delivering incomplete work, eroding trust with stakeholders.

"It all comes down to estimation and tracking—a universal challenge for everyone. The key issues are obtaining reliable estimates and then receiving prompt updates when projects deviate from the plan."

Director of Engineering at Software Development Company

Team attrition: Developers leave environments with consistently unrealistic expectations.

Conversely, realistic timelines allow for focus, quality work, and sustainable pace - all crucial elements of positive developer experience.

What are the most common causes of unrealistic timelines?

Several factors frequently contribute to timeline problems:

Optimism bias: Engineers and managers tend to underestimate complexity and overestimate their ability to deliver quickly.

"Engineers generally have good intentions about deadlines. When they promise to deliver something by Wednesday, they genuinely want to meet that commitment and believe they can—right up until Wednesday arrives. They often think that if standard working hours aren't enough, they'll just work overtime to complete the task. While they do put in those extra hours, they still frequently miss their deadlines."

Director of Engineering at Software Development Company

Inadequate discovery: Insufficient understanding of requirements and dependencies before committing to timelines.

"I find the first project much more difficult to estimate accurately, primarily because of all the unknown variables involved."

Head of Engineering at Software Development Company

External pressure: Business deadlines imposed without technical input.

"I'm reminded of my time at a company, when the managing director would demand to know exactly when a feature would go live, and I'd respond with 'February 29th'—implying an impossible deadline or one I couldn't realistically commit to."

IT Operation Transformation Leader at Software Development Company

Unplanned work: Unexpected issues, interruptions, and context-switching that aren't accounted for in planning.

"This initiative already spans more than a quarter, which makes it inherently complex. On top of that, we've had major clients requesting various fine-tuning adjustments. These requests have repeatedly consumed small chunks of our time, which collectively have delayed our project by about a month."

Head of Engineering at Software Development Company

Process bottlenecks: Lengthy approval processes, dependencies on other teams, or inefficient deployment pipelines.

"The engineer says they're ready to deploy but is somehow afraid to do it. We had to book specific calendar slots when an engineer could have exclusive access to deploy their changes, and no one else could release during that time. When I finished my work on Monday, I couldn't deploy until Wednesday or Thursday because all the deployment slots were already booked."

CTO at Online Booking Platform

How can you effectively measure if our timelines are realistic?

Measuring timeline effectiveness requires both quantitative and qualitative approaches:

DevEx Survey: Regular feedback from developers about timeline realism is a critical leading indicator.

"There are additional issues that can be addressed, such as timeline management. We collect people's comments about timelines, and AI system groups these comments together, categorizing them by the specific pain point they're describing."

Director at Software Development Company

Cycle Time Metrics: Track how long it takes from task initiation to completion.

"We have a Scrum Master who provides us with real-time cycle time data that we work with during our retrospectives. If any issues arise, we address them promptly."

Software Engineering Manager at Software Development Company

Estimation Accuracy: Compare estimated time with actual time to identify patterns and improve future estimates.

Build and Deployment Metrics: Analyze if technical infrastructure is causing timeline issues.

"We were measuring the time from commit to deployment, similar to what DORA metrics track today. We started this before Space and Dora metrics became popular. As I was transitioning out of my role a few years ago, we released an excellent GitLab integration that allowed us to extract and analyze all our logs effectively. We began examining P95 and P90 percentiles of deployment speeds and identifying which pipeline stages were creating bottlenecks across our runner infrastructure."

Senior Engineering Manager, Software Development Company

Burndown Charts: Track progress against estimates throughout development cycles.

Unplanned Work Ratio: Measure the percentage of work that wasn't in the original plan.

What strategies help create more realistic timelines?

Based on engineering leaders' experiences, several approaches stand out:

Buffer Time: Build in explicit time for unknowns, typically 20-30% beyond the base estimate.

Break Work Down: Smaller units of work are easier to estimate accurately.

"The approach is straightforward. We categorize bugs by priority level and establish clear expectations for resolution timeframes. For instance, critical or major bugs should be fixed within one week, maximum."

Head of Engineering at Software Development Company

Track and Use Historical Data: Base new estimates on actual time spent on similar previous work.

Frequent Feedback Loops: Regular check-ins allow for course correction before timelines are completely missed.

Protect Deep Work Time: Ensure developers have dedicated, interruption-free time for focused work.

"By intentionally prioritizing deep work time and being strategic about collaboration doesn't just free up time—it actually saves an average of two hours per developer each week. This creates capacity for implementing automation and improving processes and tools."

Senior Manager at Software Development Company

Rolling Roadmaps: Update plans continuously rather than committing too far in advance.

The role of developer experience surveys in improving timelines

Network Perspective DevEx Surveys offer powerful insights into timeline issues through several mechanisms:

1. Direct Measurement: The specific question "Our timelines are realistic and well-planned" provides a clear metric of how developers perceive timeline quality.

2. Pain Point Identification: AI analysis of comments helps identify specific timeline-related issues affecting your teams.

3. Actionable Recommendations: The system suggests specific interventions based on survey results.

4. Team-Level Insights: Pinpoint which teams are struggling most with timeline issues.

5. Trend Tracking: Monitor how timeline perceptions change over time as you implement improvements.

Conclusion

Realistic and well-planned timelines are fundamental to a positive developer experience. By understanding the causes of timeline issues, measuring their impact, implementing proven strategies, and using tools like Network Perspective DevEx Surveys, engineering leaders can create an environment where teams can deliver reliably without burnout.

Timeline improvement is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Regular measurement, feedback, and adjustment based on team input will lead to progressively better planning and more sustainable delivery patterns.