Whenever I come across articles discussing development estimation, I am reminded of the study discussed in Peopleware, the one in which the team that had no est

Whenever I come across articles discussing development estimation, I am reminded of the study discussed in Peopleware, the one in which the team that had no estimations finished first. Book summary with a table of some data from Michael Lawrence and Ross Jeffery's 1985 study: http://javatroopers.com/Peopleware.html#Chapter_5 http://javatroopers.com/Peopleware.html#Chapter_5 The only way to estimate (and I don't mean guess) that I have found to be reliable is the one mentioned in this article: to use previous data, and this only applies to the extent that what you're doing this time is very similar to what you did that time. Once you throw in any research, new technologies, new methodologies, that method is no longer applicable. For this reason, I find value in separating Research (testing new methods, new technologies, integration methods) from Development (applying what you already know). Research is inestimable; as far as I am aware.