Estimation is the process of finding an estimate, or approximation, which is a value that is usable for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete, uncertain, or unstable.
121
votes
16answers
9k views
How to respond when you are asked for an estimate?
We, as programmers, are constantly being asked 'How long will it take'?
And you know, the situation is almost always like this:
The requirements are unclear. Nobody has done an in depth analysis of ...
70
votes
21answers
3k views
How to estimate the length of a programming task
What process do you use to estimate how long a (significant) programming task will take. Do you use one or more of the following:
intuition/guessing
reference to similar tasks whose estimated/actual ...
54
votes
19answers
2k views
Dealing with awful estimates
A recent project I worked on was proven to be severely underestimated by the architect. The estimate was out by at least 500%.
Unfortunately I was brought onto the project after the estimate had ...
48
votes
37answers
1k views
What can I do to get better at estimating how long projects are going to take? [duplicate]
I don't want to make life hard for management. I really don't. They're nice enough guys, but every time I am assigned a new project or task and get asked "how long do you think it will take to do ...
42
votes
13answers
7k views
Why do we use story points instead of man days when estimating user stories?
In agile methodologies (e.g. SCRUM), the complexity/effort needed for a user stories are measured in Story points, and story points are used to calculate how many user story a team can take in an ...
29
votes
12answers
2k views
How possible is it to estimate time for programming projects?
It seems like it is nearly impossible to get close because you could run into any number of issues and things not first anticipated. How close can we be expected to reasonably estimate? Our PM wants ...
27
votes
14answers
464 views
Boss doesn't believe my time estimate… advice/backup?
I'm working at a startup software company -- 3 developers, less than 15 employees including the CEO. We deal exclusively with Windows Mobile, the .NET CF, and passing the information gathered from our ...
26
votes
8answers
3k views
How do you decide how much your software will cost?
If you are a solo developer, or have a leading role in a software company, you might have to decide how much your software will cost one or another day... What is your experience with calculating how ...
25
votes
4answers
864 views
How to explain to non-technical person why the task will take much longer then they think?
Almost every developer has to answer questions from business side like:
Why is going to take 2 days to add this simple contact form?
When developer estimates this task, they may divide it into steps:
...
23
votes
4answers
1k views
What are the most relevant books on software project estimation? [closed]
Is there a book out there that's the de-facto standard for describing best practices and other helpful information about software project estimation? What about that book makes it special?
22
votes
13answers
1k views
Sales Manager: “Why is time-estimation so complex?”
A few days ago a sales manager asked me that question. But at this moment I didn't know a answer which he can understand. He isn't a programmer!
At the moment I work on a product which is over 8 ...
20
votes
10answers
2k views
How to add a new developer to the team
I run a small company composed of only 2 developers. We are building a very big application for one of our clients. Development on this project has gone on for 1.5 years.
Now this client has secured ...
20
votes
14answers
879 views
How to learn to make better estimates?
I suck at estimates. When someone asks me how long something will take, I don't even dare to make a guess since I will be completely off the mark. Usually I'm way too optimistic, and should probably ...
19
votes
9answers
684 views
What do you think of “Planning Poker”? [closed]
Planning Poker
Summary, in case you don't want to read the wiki article:
Get a list of tasks you want to do for the upcoming iteration
For each task:
2.1 Discuss with the group what it entails
2.2 ...
19
votes
6answers
2k views
What's the best explanation of what Story Points are?
We're starting to use Story Points here for our Agile development but I find it hard to explain and also can't find any definitive answer to what they are. The best thing I can do is point to other ...
18
votes
5answers
2k views
Am I programming too slow? [closed]
I've only been a year in the industry and I've had some problems making estimates for specific tasks. Before you close this, yes, I've already read this: ...
17
votes
1answer
274 views
Has research been done on the effectiveness of Planning Poker as an estimation technique?
Although it is a commonly held opinion that planning poker improves the accuracy of project estimations (a small sample of which demonstrated on this question), has any defined research been done on ...
16
votes
4answers
714 views
How to Determine # of Programmers needed for a project
How do you know how many programmers a particular project needs to be successful?
The company I work for fulfills orders for client companies. We have written an in-house warehouse management ...
13
votes
5answers
2k views
Scrum - how to carry over a partially complete User Story to the next Sprint without skewing the backlog
We're using Scrum and occasionally find that we can't quite finish a User Story in the sprint in which it was planned. In true Scrum style, we ship the software anyway and consider including the User ...
12
votes
8answers
874 views
Should you promise to deliver a feature that you aren't sure if its implementable?
In an article from HN, I came across the following advice:
Always tell your customer/user "yes", even if you're not sure. 90% of
the time, you'll find a way to do it. 10% of the time, you'll go ...
12
votes
7answers
556 views
Is there really a relationship between number of people assigned to a project and the number of defects?
Here is a quote from a training manual at work regarding SLIM and software estimation:
Notice also, there is a correlation between Effort and Defects. This means, the more people there are ...
11
votes
3answers
447 views
How to handle estimates for programmers joining the team?
Iteration has already started, new programmer joins the team, task X has already been estimated to be 30 hours by a different developer.
What is the best practice in this situation?
new developer ...
11
votes
6answers
591 views
How can I estimate projects when I need to include a learning curve for new technology?
Sometimes, there are research and development projects where nothing is known in advance about the technology, concepts, and client. However, the manager still needs time estimates. What can I do to ...
11
votes
2answers
738 views
Is it Ok to change estimates in the middle of an iteration?
We have started using Agile/Scrum in a team of 4 developers. We did our story estimations and ordered the stories Primed stories in the product backlog.
We started with the point based estimation on ...
10
votes
10answers
988 views
How do you deal with time estimates? [duplicate]
If given too little time, quality suffers. If given too much time, developers will find a way to use all alloted time, no matter what. What would be a good way with dealing with estimates? Are they a ...
10
votes
4answers
350 views
What could be a good team building activity to improve estimation skills?
I'm putting together a presentation to deliver to some of my teammates (all developers), and I'd like to include a short team building activity that focuses on improving estimation skills. Does anyone ...
10
votes
3answers
522 views
What is the best/ethical way to estimate code clean-up?
I have been working on a product line since my senior year of college for my current employer. Now several years out of college I am in a position where I am giving estimates for change requests on ...
10
votes
4answers
311 views
How do I account for changed or forgotten tasks in an estimate?
To handle task-level estimates and time reporting, I have been using (roughly) the technique that Steve McConnell describes in Chapter 10 of Software Estimation. Specifically, when the time comes for ...
10
votes
4answers
251 views
Handling “related” work within a single agile work item
I'm on a project team of 4 devs, myself included. We've been having a long discussion on how to handle extra work that comes up in the course of a single work item.
This extra work is usually things ...
9
votes
11answers
659 views
User stories are too high level and conceptual, management expects developers to fill in the blanks
I am employed in a very brilliant company with a true intention of doing XP. Communication is good and management is open to constructive discussion but due to pressing time constraints, some certain ...
9
votes
8answers
821 views
Dealing with estimates as a junior programmer
I have been working for a couple of months now in a company that estimates (for the general population, not juniors specifically) tasks and then we are given the task, solve it, it goes through two ...
9
votes
5answers
528 views
Scrum re-estimation of stories
Every day, after the stand-up, my team and I update our estimates for each story. I have a feeling that there is something wrong with the way we do it, so I need your help.
This is how we do:
Story ...
9
votes
3answers
260 views
Who pays for learning curve?
For those of us in consulting OR settings where you bill your hours whats the consensus on this?
Should a client be billed for a certain amount of the learning curve? Should your employer be picking ...
8
votes
8answers
1k views
Tool to track time estimations vs, actual time
Following these two questions:
How to respond when asked for Estimate, What's the best project management software for small team
I am looking for a tool that combines project management with the ...
7
votes
7answers
469 views
How detailed is the estimate you show your customers?
For custom software, when you are giving your customer an estimate, how much detail do you tend to include?
Do you:
break it down into small tasks that can be done in a few hours and give them ...
7
votes
3answers
342 views
Agile estimation with tech-debt
When estimating (story points) a story that consists on extending a current functionality with a known tech-debt, should we consider the effort that will be spent to refactor the current code or ...
7
votes
3answers
299 views
Real world Agile practices and estimates
In a perfect world, we tell the client we follow an agile methodology where we allow the scope to increase/decrease as the requirements change and we bill per hour for each iteration.
In reality, ...
7
votes
3answers
144 views
Considering consistent change, how short of a planning period is too short?
Change is not uncommon, change in requirements, change in specs change in workflow. I've accepted that there will be change, but I wonder: knowing that change is going to happen, how short of a ...
6
votes
3answers
169 views
Is it proper to have Investigation task in sprint
I have been practicing agile for more than a year now. As part of our sprint, some times we will have Investigation Tasks. We skip poker planning for theses tasks, and adds blanket numbers.
Theses ...
6
votes
7answers
684 views
Best way to estimate cost related to porting code from language A to language B?
Have a client thinking about estimating the cost of porting a project from language A to language B. What's the best way to put together an request for proposal to do this?
6
votes
5answers
432 views
Software cost estimation
I've seen on my work place (a University) most students making the software estimation cost of their final diploma work using COCOMO. My guessing is that this way of estimating costs is somewhat old ...
6
votes
4answers
837 views
How many user stories per person should be completed per sprint?
Just ran across this figure, and wondering if there's another well know source than would help confirm these numbers:
Based on data I analyzed on successfully finished sprints, I
determined that ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
What is a good estimation technique for initial, high-level estimates?
I'm currently using Planning Poker to do our detailed estimates. This works great but relies upon a fairly detailed work breakdown. Often it takes 6-8 weeks to get a sufficiently detailed design and ...
6
votes
3answers
303 views
What are the most relevant books on software task estimation for individuals?
What books have you read that helped you, as a programmer, learn to estimate time for completing small-to-medium programming tasks, such as bug fixes or implementing new features? Which have you the ...
6
votes
2answers
693 views
What's the best way to estimate story points in scrum?
I like the way planning poker works at the beginning of any project, letting you compare and discuss details of each story with one another.
One of the issues I've noticed with this is that through ...
5
votes
7answers
1k views
What is the relationship between the time it takes to develop N lines of code and 4N lines of code?
It took me time T to develop program A, which is measured at 1000 lines of code (SLOC), in certain a language and domain and of a certain complexity. Is there a method to determine how much time it ...
5
votes
6answers
375 views
What are the methods to estimate source code value?
I've been working on some project on my free time for the past few months. Recently I've been approached by friends to build a startup, and this source code would be very valuable to us.
As a ...
5
votes
5answers
616 views
Should you ever re-estimate user stories?
My current project is having a 'discussion' which is split down the middle- "this story is more complex than we originally thought, we should re-estimate" vs "you should never re-estimate as you only ...
5
votes
4answers
367 views
Why is it suggested stories be sized to 2-3 days?
If sprints are on average 10 days, why is it often suggested stories be sized to 2-3 days?
Related Question: How to handle backlog-items that are longer than one sprint?
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How can I estimate the value of an open-source project?
I am trying to generate a metric for a company cost savings goal. To do this, I want to estimate the savings we realized by using an open source web application rather than building it from scratch or ...
