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You can also use modeling, which for a bunch of STEM people seems to almost never come up. Take projects you've done, do Monte Carlo simulations, and then star
by jdmichal 8y ago
You can also use modeling, which for a bunch of STEM people seems to almost never come up. Take projects you've done, do Monte Carlo simulations, and then start giving estimates with confidence bounds. Can also use things like Little's Law to determine lead times.
- coldtea 8y agoThat only works if you regularly get similar projects. Throw a new type of project or a new client with special needs, and bets are off, Monte Carlo or not.
- jdmichal 8y agoYea I've been down this discussion path before. I'll just refer you there, and you can feel free to chime in with any new thoughts. My general thoughts is that typical software engineering does not have drastically more degrees of project uniqueness than other engineering fields. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17765399 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17765399
- coldtea 8y ago>My general thoughts is that typical software engineering does not have drastically more degrees of project uniqueness than other engineering fields. I really doubt that. In construction for example, tolerances, materials, requirements, etc are know well before even a single brick has been laid, and if they are to even consider changing them mid-construction, detailed new plans about everything that changed is in process. That's almost never the case with software requirements. The same tools, processes and technologies are also used for decades or in some cases centuries totally unchanged. In software a domain (e.g. web programming) can be completely different every 5-10 years.