Why FogBugz doesn't have Gantt Charts
Saturday, 9 January, 2010 — software development
Fog Creek’s Rich Armstrong explains:
Gantt charts are great for managing projects where risk is low or measurable (5% chance that the drywall guy won’t show up for work), or where variability is low (the drywall guy can finish 200-250 linear feet of wall in a shift).
The temptation is to use the same tool to represent complex software projects, but software projects are fraught with risk (turns out the libraries you rely on have a bug) and variability (the customer called again). On a construction project, if the drywall guy gets the flu, that part of the chart might come in at 110% of its initial projected time. In software, a total unknown can triple the time it takes to do a portion of the project.
One of my ongoing revelations this past year is how desperately managers want to have an answer to the question, “How are things going?” If they’re accustomed to managing something other than software development, they’re very eager to use the tools they know (Gantt charts, Excel spreadsheets) to try to answer that question.
(Via Fog Creek’s first Developer Newsletter)