Software effort estimation causes three problems. First, most estimation processes model the uncertainty about the effort required for tasks but fail to model t

Software effort estimation causes three problems. First, most estimation processes model the uncertainty about the effort required for tasks but fail to model the uncertainty about the tasks themselves, leading to unreliable estimates. Second, people are overly confident of the estimates, in any case, because the estimation process looks impressive and produces impressive looking artifacts. Third, the estimation artifacts obscure the coupling between the stakeholders and the implementers by not transmitting how the one group’s decisions affect the other; the estimates, in effect, form a barrier that makes it harder for people on opposites sides of the estimates to take shared responsibility for business goals. If you understand these problems and can solve them for your projects, estimation can help you to make better decisions and to allocate your resources more effectively. But, in a lot of organizations, these problems have no good solutions (for cultural reasons), and there you might be better off not sharing your estimates if you do them.