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IME, if the manager is primarily coming up with the estimates, rather than the team, you're doing it wrong. (And are doomed to an eternal cycle of blame, stress
by HereBeBeasties 7y ago
IME, if the manager is primarily coming up with the estimates, rather than the team, you're doing it wrong. (And are doomed to an eternal cycle of blame, stress and lack of trust.)
- commandlinefan 7y agoYou don’t know how this game works. Of course the devs come up with the _initial_ estimates - they have to, or else it wouldn’t be possible to blame them when they end up delivering “late”. But those initial estimates are always “negotiated down” to whatever looks best on the manager’s quarterly bonus review - they might not be brilliant at designing products or scheduling, but they’re geniuses when it comes to re-stating things so that they sound different but are actually the same until you finally get tired of arguing with them (I mean, it’s tricky to argue with somebody who decides whether you get paid or not) and agree to whatever they say and just disappoint them later.
- HereBeBeasties 7y agoWe tend to try to do any vaguely longer term/important estimation as a team exercise, which ends up with people talking each other's estimates up, not down - you explore the problem space more effectively as a team and a lot of "but what about X" stuff comes out of the woodwork then. If you have a manager who sets your team up for pressure and failure by artificially revising your estimates down, without cutting the scope of the work, then personally, I would find a new manager. Source: Am a manager.