Don’t let the tools use you

In today’s software development we use many tools to help us doing our job. Many of them are indispensable. But don’t make yourself a slave of the tool.
When we create schedules based on our estimates we have a great way to communicate how much work we think needs to be done. But don’t let the schedule fool you: you made an estimate based on your knowledge before you began to work. Maybe you need to change the infrastructure, maybe the new change interferes with a past one, in short you gain knowledge on your way. This knowledge can lead you to adapt or even rework your schedule. Your usual approach for accounting unforeseen obstacles might be to include a risk “pad”. Why not use your new gained knowledge to communicate with your client? Maybe a small change to the planned feature is much easier to implement and the client doesn’t even need the extra flexibility. Or the feature is not that important or worth. Don’t try to hold the schedule at all costs. Estimates are a communication tool not a promise we need to fulfill. (related: read also a 37signals post on It’s not a promise it’s a guess)
Or take a look at your favorite editor or IDE: if you happen to use a new language, source code management system or another new tool, the chances are high that your IDE doesn’t support all features or any features at all. You may be tempted to adapt your way to what your IDE supports. If that suits you it’s definitely ok but don’t let the IDE determine how you make use of the features.
When you use software metrics to measure and control the quality of your code you get a lot of numbers and graphs and hints. Use them when you think they benefit you. Don’t just adhere to them, they are a guideline for you, not a law.