Deadlines

How soon does your software need to be done? Sometimes a program’s deadline is a top priority, so the design of the software needs to change based on that deadline. You might have to sacrifice user experience, performance, or scalability to meet the deadline. As such, setting a deadline as the top priority usually results in lower-quality software. All the software’s real priorities should be examined, and then you can set a realistic deadline based on those priorities. This can be an iterative process: When the realistic deadline you set seems too far into the future, you can remove some performance or user experience features and recalculate your time estimates. Deadlines can be helpful in design and planning, but they generally shouldn’t be your top priority.