Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
If you’ve been following the conversation, I discussed in Part 1 how I like agile roadmaps and gross estimation and/or targets for projects and programs. In Part 2, I discussed when estimates might not be useful. In Part 3, I discussed how estimates can be useful. In Part 4, I discussed #noestimates. Let me summarize …
Continue reading “The Case for and Against Estimates, Part 5”
When we think about the discussion about estimates and #noestimates, I have one big question: Where do you want to spend your time? In projects, we need to decide where to spend our time. In agile and lean projects, we limit the work in progress. We prefer to spend our time delivering, not estimating. That’s …
Continue reading “The Case for and Against Estimates, Part 4”
In Part 1, I discussed order-of-magnitude estimates and targets. In part 2, I said how estimates can be misused. In this part, I’ll discuss when estimation is useful. Here are several possibilities: How big is this problem that we are trying to solve? Where are the risks in this problem? Is there something we can …
Continue reading “The Case for and Against Estimates, Part 3”
In the first part of this series, I said I liked order-of-magnitude estimates. I also like targets in lieu of estimates. I’ll say more about how estimates can be useful in part 3. In this part, I’ll discuss when I don’t like estimates. I find estimates not useful under these conditions: When the people estimating are …
Continue reading “The Case for and Against Estimates, Part 2”
After the article I referenced in Moving to Agile Contracts was published, there was a little kerfuffle on Twitter. Some people realized I was talking about the value of estimates and #noestimates. Some folks thought I was advocating never estimating anything. Let me clarify my position. I like order-of-magnitude estimates. I don’t hire people without …
Continue reading “The Case for and Against Estimates, Part 1”
I’ve been teaching workshops these last few weeks. A number of the participants think that they need to create great estimates. I keep hearing, “I have to create accurate estimates. My team needs my estimate to be accurate.” I have found that the smaller the work, the better the estimate. If people work as a team, …
Ryan Ripley “highly recommends” Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Cost or Schedule. See his post: Pragmatic Agile Estimation: Predicting the Unpredictable. He says this: This is a practical book about the work of creating software and providing estimates when needed. Her estimation troubleshooting guide highlights many of the hidden issues with estimating such as: …
Continue reading “Great Review of Predicting the Unpredictable”
I published my most recent newsletter, Creating Trustworthy Estimates, this past week. I also noted on Twitter that one person said his estimates created trust in his organization. (He was responding to a #noestimate post that I had retweeted.) Sometimes, estimates do create trust. They provide a comfortable feeling to many people that you have …
I’m happy to announce that Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Cost or Schedule is done and available. It’s available in electronic and print formats. If you need a little help explaining your estimates or how to use estimation (even #noestimate), read this book.
I have a new article up on agileconnection.com called The Case for #NoEstimates. The idea is to produce value instead of spending time estimating. We have a vigorous “debate” going on in the comments. I have client work today, so I will be slow to answer comments. I will answer as soon as I have …