> I am always incredibly surprised when people are surprised when I miss deadlines.
I relate with this. Any skilled engineer worth their salt know that there are going to be a lot of unknown unknowns. Slippage is 99% guaranteed.
What surprises me is that managers are surprised at slippages. Like, did they ever engineer anything in the past?
> If I am not allowed any autonomy then could you please be explicit and upfront with all the trade-offs I am allowed to make, all the risks I am allowed to accept and the technical debts I am allowed to accrue?
This question is the one that irks managers. Because in reality, they want to be "own" only the successful decisions, not the failures. And they dare not ever clarify anything because it may end up leading to a failure. BUT, they also want to penalize you for the failure.
I relate with this. Any skilled engineer worth their salt know that there are going to be a lot of unknown unknowns. Slippage is 99% guaranteed.
What surprises me is that managers are surprised at slippages. Like, did they ever engineer anything in the past?
> If I am not allowed any autonomy then could you please be explicit and upfront with all the trade-offs I am allowed to make, all the risks I am allowed to accept and the technical debts I am allowed to accrue?
This question is the one that irks managers. Because in reality, they want to be "own" only the successful decisions, not the failures. And they dare not ever clarify anything because it may end up leading to a failure. BUT, they also want to penalize you for the failure.
Managers are the biggest cop out there are.