Question

I have a developer on my staff that chronically overshoots deadlines, and estimates. On several projects the last week or two everyday I hear ‘It should be done by the end of the day’. This developer does good work.

I have already spoke to him about his problems. He seems genuinely frustrated, and miffed about what to do to correct them.

My Questions are:

1. What kinds of punishments for passing a deadline are effective?
2. What ways can I coerce this employee to police his actions (time estimates, etc.,) himself?

UPDATE: Based on the responses; here’s what I have figured out.

1. Punishment is a bad idea.
2. It is natural for an employee to be unable to fix estimating problems without intervention.
3. Don’t make deadlines unless there’s company consequences (lost contract) for not being done by then.
4. Utilize available methods (Agile, Joel’s checklist) to help the developer estimate better.

Thanks for the links and information. Also thanks for updating my thinking.

Answer 1

I don’t think the problem is that he is missing these deadlines.

I think he has a real problem in estimating the amount of time it will take to complete a task.

Have him start keeping a journal of what he says a task will take and how long it actually took him to complete the task. Eventually, this journal will become a sort of guide for him to create better estimates. Once he becomes better at estimating, he shouldn’t feel as rushed or harried.