3 ms·
This sounds a lot like the coastline paradox. The more precisely you try to measure a coastline, the harder it gets due to its fractal nature. Software estimat
by hnick 3y ago
This sounds a lot like the coastline paradox. The more precisely you try to measure a coastline, the harder it gets due to its fractal nature.
Software estimation, similarly, is fractal in nature - you can always drill down deeper to measure but it gets increasingly complex and at some point you have to ask, is it worth it being "accurate"? Or do we just do it? Org charts require the former while developers desire the latter.
- moring 3y agoI think that analogy is broken. Measuring a coastline more precisely doesn't just become more complex (measuring precisely often does), but actually increases the measured length towards infinity. Unless you wanted to say that the same is true for software estimation, e.g. due to the measurements taking up more and more time.
- hnick 3y agoYes, I meant the time taken estimating. The act of measuring estimated hours becomes more complex because the closer you look, the more you see, you could do it forever and have to stop somewhere. But maybe instead of infinity, it's better to say estimation can take longer than the work itself which has been the case a few times for me.