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Even the language is not correct: We all call it "estimate", but stakeholders behave like it's a "commitment". Passage from uncertainty to certainty happens in
by yawz 8y ago
Even the language is not correct: We all call it "estimate", but stakeholders behave like it's a "commitment". Passage from uncertainty to certainty happens in the language, and all the responsibility is on the engineering team's shoulders.
- adrianmonk 8y agoEven if you choose the right words, people don't necessarily pay close attention. And if they want a commitment, they may assume that the numbers you give them are a commitment regardless of how you phrase it. But even if they did listen closely to what you said, "estimate" is not even a great word. If your car is in a wreck, a body shop gives you an estimate to fix it, and they may treat that estimate as a commitment. It's pretty common practice that people are held to an estimate, or to not going over by a certain small percentage. Maybe we need a word like "forecast" or "prediction".
- Bjartr 8y ago> Maybe we need a word like "forecast" or "prediction". Scrum (The org behind that flavor of agile) actually changed the language used in their guide back in 2011 from developers making a "spring commitment" to making a "spring forecast" for exactly these reasons. https://www.scrum.org/resources/commitment-vs-forecast https://www.scrum.org/resources/commitment-vs-forecast
- c0vfefe 8y ago> stakeholders behave like it's a "commitment". Many places treat budgets the same way.