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These days I sit somewhere in the middle, I don't give precise estimates because they'll inevitably be wrong, but I am willing to use a kind of log scale when e
by jon-wood 10y ago
These days I sit somewhere in the middle, I don't give precise estimates because they'll inevitably be wrong, but I am willing to use a kind of log scale when estimating tasks with real time. Estimates come in the form of n hours, n days, n weeks, or n months, and a heavy caveat that the less granular the estimate the less accurate I expect it to be. I'll also never commit to working on any task with an estimate over a day or two, weeks and months are solely for long term planning and deciding which of several large projects should be taken on first.
- seanwilson 10y agoSounds sensible to me. For longer tasks, I also think it's useful to say (where practical) "I'm really not sure because there are too many unknowns but if you let me work on it for X hours first I can provide a more accurate estimate then". I think the important points are to always caveat estimates, build risks + unknowns into the estimates, update estimates as the situation evolves and never allow yourself to commit to an estimate with too many unknowns.