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The purpose of providing an estimate is to get the person asking off your back, so you can go back to getting work done. Beyond that, there’s little to no value
by steve_taylor 6y ago
The purpose of providing an estimate is to get the person asking off your back, so you can go back to getting work done. Beyond that, there’s little to no value. People ask for estimated because lies are strongly preferred over uncertainty.
- harryh 6y agoEstimate are useful in software businesses for a wide variety of important reasons: - so you can tell the customer when they can reasonable expect to get something they need - so you know when you will need to be ready with the next project on the agenda - do that you will know when you might consider adding resources to a project to make it go faster (yes, this is not always possible, but it sometimes is) - so that you will know if your funding runway is sufficient for your R&D needs - so that you can compare two or more different projects when deciding what to work on; time to completion can be an important consideration in these decisions
- Aeolun 6y ago> People ask for estimated because lies are strongly preferred over uncertainty. I think this is the crux of the whole thing.
- maps7 6y ago> lies are strongly preferred over uncertainty. This is a really good statement and it is not restricted to the software domain either.