Dusty Volumes

Success with the planning game relies on a shift in organizational behaviour so that the organization accepts the estimates given by the programmers. How likely is it that command and control-style organizations can successfully delegate responsibility for estimating down to the programmers? Many organizations seem to prefer the idea of stretch targets – the idea that if the manager reduces the time available, the team will work harder to meet this new target. Imposed estimates are such an endemic problem in software development that I suspect that few organizations will be able to use the planning game successfully.

— Pete McBreen, Questioning Extreme Programming, Chapter 6