I've found if you give realistic estimates, some contracting firm comes in, offers to do it in half the time, grabs the project and then takes 2x longer. Findin

I've found if you give realistic estimates, some contracting firm comes in, offers to do it in half the time, grabs the project and then takes 2x longer. Finding stakeholders competent enough to understand this pattern is important. If not, you might as well throw out any estimate and also take longer.