Alpha2 said:
Just because he mentioned days that he'd hoped to have the project ready doesnt mean he lied to anyone. If he's to be faulted for anything in the issuing of those dates, it's trying too hard to please the people that shelled out hard earned money on the hope that the team would deliver.
You say that like it's not a serious fault, almost a virtue.
In fact it
is a serious fault. When money is changing hands there is a very real moral responsibility to provide honest
and well researched time estimates.
(Also cost estimates, but Pandora is pre-pay, so that doesn't apply, of course.)
And don't think I'm comparing OP to a Fortune 500 company! On the contrary, those guys can get away with whatever they want. It's the little guys who have to be good.
If your local mechanic consistently told you that your car would be ready in "two days" and then strung you along like that for a fortnight, you'd have every right to be angry.
If your local graphic design firm told you they'd design your new logo in "Two Weeks" and then took four months, you'd be furious.
If your local baker told you that your birthday cake would be ready in "two hours" every time you tried to pick it up, and ultimately didn't finish it until three days after the birthday, you'd be livid.
And it wouldn't help
at all if any of these businesses gave OpenPandora-style excuses for their change in estimates. ("We assumed that the frosting would be no problem at all, it turns out what
should be a simple process is actually slow and painstaking!")
I'm not saying that Pandora won't be awesome when it comes out. And I'm also not saying that OpenPandora could somehow make things better by going down on their knees and begging for forgiveness or something. But I
am saying that there's no need to sugar-coat it and pretend that OP has done perfectly and even their failures are somehow a virtue.