- PM : we have no choice but to finish this before deadline.
- Me : We can't, it's a really big feature.
- PM : But we have no choice.
- Me : But we can't.
...

*What is she waiting for*

She is waiting for you to laugh, point something behind her and say:
"That was a joke! It was for a hidden camera! Of course I can do it before the deadline, I can also make it half the price and the soft will also be able to launch people to the moon!"

@Enocra haha, that's it. Just go at home this weekend while I handle it.

She means she has already promised it to someone and doesn't want to go back on it!

@spl0 yes, but that's his job to take care of hierarchy problem. If she doesn't there's no reason she's paid twice my salary.

@tomabolt You're 100% correct.

However, developers can be a nightmare.

A developer will know a feature they have been tasked will take 6 weeks to build and properly test. But they know the PM wants it in 4 weeks, so they tell the PM 4 weeks and then the developer is screwed! Hence the PM looks like they are nagging at the start of week 4 about progress and delivery.

Also, developers have a major problem communicating with PMs. So even if the developer sticks to their guns of 6 weeks, if they realise after 4 weeks, they need an additional 2 weeks, they won't speak up. And when the client gets the feature at 6 weeks as promised, it breaks and then the developer goes into a hole and starts saying things like "well it worked on my machine", or "it worked in the dev environment".

Developers need to learn to speak to humans and communicate frequently, then we won't have this "oh the PM is nagging, and they're on double the salary I am", blah-de-blah!

PS. I am a developer myself!

@leewilson86 Yes it could be a nightmare too for the PM. It's for that reason scrum method or stuffs like that exists, to keep tracking progress and difficulties. In my case, when looking at our backlog we can tell clearly it's not possible. 4 months earlier we all knew it would be difficult. But no money = no more recruitments and no more additional time..

@leewilson86 Also, when your hierarchy don't want to spend more money on the project. It's maybe time to adjust your priorities. Give up some useless features. I'm not saying reduce the PM salary as you can see. It's not jealousy, it's being fuckin realistic on what you can have with how much you are paying for.

@tomabolt I totally see your point in your two replies to me.

I suppose if budgets are limited our hands are tied a bit.

My point was more at where there is enough budget but estimation, timelines and communication becomes an issue, rather than the PM being a nag.

The scrum idea sounds good. It's not something I've implemented or been a part of yet, but is certainly an area I have been exploring.

Why all PM rants i see about are women ?..

What if she is also on devrant ? 😀

@Marnsghol well I don't care because I already had a talk with her about this (except the salary stuff, as it is a tabou subject in France :D)