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My boss told me to estimate the effort it would take to make an app that integrates with a bunch of server systems. He estimated 'x' units of time, thinking onl
by jiggawatts 4y ago
My boss told me to estimate the effort it would take to make an app that integrates with a bunch of server systems. He estimated 'x' units of time, thinking only of the core functionality of what the app actually does. I told him it's more like 10x, because the core functionality is only a small part of a product. Billing, testing, the dev environment, customer-facing documentation, the product web site, etc... all add up.
- texasbigdata 4y agoWhat did it end up being? I’m guessing closer to your order of magnitude? Excluding scope creep, of course.
- jiggawatts 4y agoHe abandoned the project before it even started, even though IMHO it was a good idea. Similar products that ended up with a wider scope include the likes of Okta, so clearly there was a large addressable market! Something I've found is that there are two types of people when it comes to planning / forecasting: SALES -- Wants to hear only positive things. Likes to ignore predictable issues, pretend unlikely risks will never happen, just go-go-go. Often sounds unreasonably optimistic to other people, which can be off-putting. ENGINEERING -- Wants to hear all the bad things before committing. Likes to mull over all predictable issues to determine if they're show-stoppers and/or if workarounds are available. Often sounds unreasonably pessimistic to other people, which can be off-putting. Both types can be in agreement that a project is a "good idea" while one type is listing only the upsides and the other type is listing only the downsides. This can result in rather poor communication and missed opportunities.