Liz KeoghIf I estimate something at 5 days, how much faster than that might it be?
We might find it's trivial or already done, so we might save 5 days.
How much SLOWER can it be?
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Work can be infinitely slower than estimate (if it is, we usually give up and do something different).
The more innovative it is, the more discoveries there are. They will tend to slow you down more than speed you up.
That's why nobody in software is good at estimates.
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Not The LBC Guy@lunivore and then people ask us to estimate design, which is almost pure discovery!
Owen Beresford@lunivore I have estimated things I understood , but never done previously & my estimate was bang on. I have stopped even guessing for "process or technology is new to me". A #NoEstimate is more precise and correct than WrongEstimate.
MatthewPCooke@lunivore I reckon more focus on estimation would ideally be on the collaborative aspects. Wildly variably estimation error, along with wildly variable business outcomes is a key part of collaborative planning and in many businesses just to be expected for some of the work.
@lunivore ideally there would be a shared understanding of the possibility the work won’t deliver business value (or the value will be stopping early). Similarly there may be alternative ways to deliver the business value, alternative technical solutions to consider, or higher value work to consider if something turns out to be much more difficult to deliver technically than expected.