In one of DeMarco's other books -- I can't now recall if it was PeopleWare or The Deadline -- he explains how arbitrary deadlines come unstuck.
Because people learn that they are arbitrary. When the Super Serious Urgent Red Alert All Hands Man Battle Stations deadline whistles by without much more than a frown from management, the team quickly realises that it was total horseshit to begin with.
Software engineers are, it has been observed, a smart bunch. If deadlines are being used a "motivational" technique, they are quickly degraded into meaninglessness.
Which will hurt the company when an actual hard deadline pops up.
Because people learn that they are arbitrary. When the Super Serious Urgent Red Alert All Hands Man Battle Stations deadline whistles by without much more than a frown from management, the team quickly realises that it was total horseshit to begin with.
Software engineers are, it has been observed, a smart bunch. If deadlines are being used a "motivational" technique, they are quickly degraded into meaninglessness.
Which will hurt the company when an actual hard deadline pops up.
Boy who cried "Wolf!" and all that.