In my experience the deadlines are not a big problem; the communication about it is though. I worked with PMs that try to attack the issue by shooting into micromanagement mode (symptom: the project management system gets filled up with literally 1000s of tiny points with random deadlines in order to try to manage the fact that they don't get how software dev works); this drives most devs mental up to a point they burn out. There are only so many ' why is task xyz3835433 not done? It was set to be done yesterday?' 'Yes, because it was set by you and task xyz3835433 cannot be done in that time' 'Why did you not tell me?' 'Because I do not have time to respond to 9000 points every day; they are not relevant to my work' etc. Usually these PMs come from another discipline like management of marketing or PR campaigns, were breaking deadlines is not an option. But complexity there is far easier to manage and oversee and they do not understand (even after many metaphors) why our estimates are not spot on. They will communicate with the client (internal/external) in massive MS Project files and accompanying docs that no-one will ever read and berate the team for being so much off in the estimates.
Then there is the other type of PM who will continuously manage back the client expectation. To the layman, this person seems to tell the client (internal or external) bad news on a daily basis; it'll take longer, cost more and you're getting less.
It's the latter PM + team that actually will get the flowers and the cake on launch day and a have the happy devs that did not have to sleep under their desks while the former team will be near burn out, client unhappy even though they probably technically did deliver more (but also too late). Usually that former team won't get more money for it either...
I have seen both in startups and fortune x companies; I have seen both as contractors and as internal teams. For the anecdotal part here; the ones with a PM like the first one in a product company internal setting, those companies all failed that I have seen/worked with. For contracting work, it can work, but it's a stressful and panicky way of working which often results in one-off contracts.
You inevitably come to something like sprints and good, timely bad news talks. People who have the micromanagement type need for control are just not going to survive those as their struggle breaks down even inside a 2 week sprint period.
Then there is the other type of PM who will continuously manage back the client expectation. To the layman, this person seems to tell the client (internal or external) bad news on a daily basis; it'll take longer, cost more and you're getting less.
It's the latter PM + team that actually will get the flowers and the cake on launch day and a have the happy devs that did not have to sleep under their desks while the former team will be near burn out, client unhappy even though they probably technically did deliver more (but also too late). Usually that former team won't get more money for it either...
I have seen both in startups and fortune x companies; I have seen both as contractors and as internal teams. For the anecdotal part here; the ones with a PM like the first one in a product company internal setting, those companies all failed that I have seen/worked with. For contracting work, it can work, but it's a stressful and panicky way of working which often results in one-off contracts.
You inevitably come to something like sprints and good, timely bad news talks. People who have the micromanagement type need for control are just not going to survive those as their struggle breaks down even inside a 2 week sprint period.