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You can't have it both ways. Either you ask the developers for an estimate and you get ridiculed because how can developers possibly have any clue how long it's

You can't have it both ways. Either you ask the developers for an estimate and you get ridiculed because how can developers possibly have any clue how long it's going to take them something? A day, a month, a year, who knows how much time this CRUD service will take! Or you don't consult with your developers, but then you've made an unrealistic promise with a number pulled out of your pants and you're the cause of all the suffering in your team.

DeathArrow 4y ago
No. Realistic is talking to your team exposing all the knowns and unknowns, refine the feature as realistically possible, while keeping the client in the loop, and once the feature is decently refined you ask the team for an estimation, take the higher limit and add a buffer for things that are not development related. In the best case the feature will be done earlier, in the worst case you won't look like an idiot which promised things and didn't deliver and you won't compromise your relationship with the team. Compromising relationships with either clients or tech teams aren't good for your career. More simply put, try to be as honest as possible. Not over promise, not under deliver. One of my former girlfriends went to a business school and worked in banking. She thought people in IT have better salaries and she thinked tech people are a bunch of idiots and it's easy to push them to do things and extract a fat paycheck. So she did some courses on IT management and applied to lots of product owner and product manager role. After tens of interviews she hadn't had one success. To add insult to the injury, I showed her I make more money as a team lead than the product owner. Of course, the reverse is true and I've seen product owners being genuinely useful and having lots of business knowledge, some even programing knowledge. Some people are just after the money, no matter what role they occupy in an IT company. And they tend to be the least useful persons who are blocking others to reach full potential.

DeathArrow 4y ago

No. Realistic is talking to your team exposing all the knowns and unknowns, refine the feature as realistically possible, while keeping the client in the loop, and once the feature is decently refined you ask the team for an estimation, take the higher limit and add a buffer for things that are not development related. In the best case the feature will be done earlier, in the worst case you won't look like an idiot which promised things and didn't deliver and you won't compromise your relationship with the team. Compromising relationships with either clients or tech teams aren't good for your career. More simply put, try to be as honest as possible. Not over promise, not under deliver. One of my former girlfriends went to a business school and worked in banking. She thought people in IT have better salaries and she thinked tech people are a bunch of idiots and it's easy to push them to do things and extract a fat paycheck. So she did some courses on IT management and applied to lots of product owner and product manager role. After tens of interviews she hadn't had one success. To add insult to the injury, I showed her I make more money as a team lead than the product owner. Of course, the reverse is true and I've seen product owners being genuinely useful and having lots of business knowledge, some even programing knowledge. Some people are just after the money, no matter what role they occupy in an IT company. And they tend to be the least useful persons who are blocking others to reach full potential.