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Is Your Software Project Self-Sabotaging? The Psychology of Estimation and Team Culture
There are two distinct types of constraints in software projects: physical and psychological.
Physical Limitations
Physical limitations are hard constraints like time, available computers, and the number of people on a team. These are essentially anything you can represent objectively with numbers, and most people would agree on the assessment. If your computer is old and slow, that’s a limitation you can likely resolve by spending money. So, let’s slightly refine the definition: “Physical limitations are those that can be resolved (or at least improved) by spending money.”
(This is still debatable, as some physical limitations like the speed of light cannot be changed, no matter the budget. However, for practical purposes, money serves as a good indicator of whether a limitation is physical or psychological.)
Companies often prefer to frame all limitations as physical because they’re easier to quantify and address than psychological ones.
Psychological Limitations
Even with the advent of GenAI, software projects (like most others) are still conceived and built by humans. Where there are people, there are emotions, assumptions, and biases…
