12 of the Scariest Developer Fears at Halloween

Warning: the following article will strike fear into the hearts of programmers everywhere. It may be Halloween, but it's terrifying to realize these issues can crop up at any time of year. Turn back before it's too late …

1. Estimation Aversion

Time estimation is hard. Even if you adequately divide a project into tiny constituent parts, it's difficult to accurately predict how long a task will take if you've never done it before. Even if you're confident, you'll probably forget the impact of non-programming issues such as progress meetings, vacations, sick leave, documentation, etc.

Estimation is made worse by naive project managers who tie you down to those figures. Remind them that estimates are called "estimates" for a reason.

2. Suspicious Schedules

Projects must have clearly defined goals and time-lines or they can drift forever. Nothing can be ever considered "complete" but goals should be achievable and dates should be realistic. Even then, be prepared for slippage because things go wrong and it's impossible to foresee all problems.

Programmers are often blamed for release delays. It's not necessarily your fault: bad management and a failure to plan is the cause.

3. Scope Creeps

Those who overcome estimation and scheduling woes can be faced with the scope creep; a dastardly character who insists on new features or total overhauls every few days. Nothing is ever good enough and the project veers uncontrollably from one rewrite to another. Good project management will help. Or simply ask the creep for a fully-documented specification -- they'll go mysteriously quiet.

4. Tool Tremors

There's one thing worse than not having the right tools for the job: being forced to use tool you hate. Perhaps you're a PHP developer being moved into Java. Or a Gulp expert compelled to use Grunt. Or an Atom user obliged to use Eclipse.

Be pragmatic and adopt the procedures and processes used by others in your team (unless you can convince them that migrating elsewhere is cost-effective). But having to use random tool or editor because "that's what we use here" is soul-destroying. The solution? Don't whine and use whatever you need. It's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission -- and few will complain if you get the job done.

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by Craig Buckler via SitePoint