Since estimations are so faulty, there is little reason to be concerned when software projects do not meet estimated targets.

Since estimates are so faulty, there is little reason to be concerned when software projects do not meet estimated targets. But everyone is concerned anyway.

... I ask the attendees to work on a small task. I deliberately give them too much to do and not enough time to do it. My expectation is that the attendees will try to do the whole job, do it correctly, and therefore will produce an unfinished product because they run out of time. Not so. To a person, these attendees scramble mightily to achieve my impossible schedule. They produce sketchy and shoddy products that appear to be complete but cannot possibly work.

What does that tell me? That, in our culture today, people are trying so hard to achieve (impossible) schedules that they are willing to sacrifice completeness and quality in getting there. That there has been a successful conditioning process, one that has resulted in people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. And finally, and most disturbingly, that it will be very difficult to turn all of this around.

Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering
by Robert L. Glass