> no matter how much lower-level managers complained, the team could still anonymously say when they actually believe the project will be finished. Etc.
This would result in lower tier managers announcing beforehand they claimed "x time for y project" and if the devs want their sickdays/bonuses/promotions they should claim same.
The survey I'm imagining is just "rate the progress of project X from 1 to 10 (1 being just started, 10 being complete)"[0], and also "rate your happiness from 1 to 10", and "rate the quality of the work done from 1 to 10".
This would be anonymous, the only thing that wouldn't be anonymous is whether or not an employee has updated their survey within the last 2 weeks.
I would absolutely throw that hypothetical lower-tier manager you mentioned under the bus. The surveys could have a "rate your manager 1 to 10" question too.
I think it would be valuable insight to all levels of management. If the team is being death marched, happiness and quality surveys would drop. Or, if you see a team deliver a buggy project, but quality surveys were high all throughout development, then you could tell that the team was incompetent and hire/fire/train accordingly.
[0]: Don't ask people to guess completion dates, have them guess percent completed and then calculate completion dates in the software.
This would result in lower tier managers announcing beforehand they claimed "x time for y project" and if the devs want their sickdays/bonuses/promotions they should claim same.