After reading the Mythical Man Month, I derived an estimation scheme that was something like this: 1. I know this, I have done it before in this codebase. Esti

After reading the Mythical Man Month, I derived an estimation scheme that was something like this: 1. I know this, I have done it before in this codebase. Estimate is accurate, multiply by 2 to account for watercooler talk, documentation, and other non coding work. 2. I know this codebase, I have a pretty good idea of what to do, how, and where. I have walked trough the code and can't identify any major roadblocks. Multiply by 5 3. I don't have an honest idea. Multiply by 20, and make it clear that it's a guesstimate at best. Usually a better estimate can be given after working on it some time. It's still off more than I like.