I have an article up on agileconnection.com. It’s called How Do Your Estimates Provide Value? I’ve said before that We Need Planning; Do We Need Estimation? Sometimes we need estimates. Sometimes we don’t. That’s why I wrote Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches for Estimating Cost or Schedule. I’m not judging your estimates. I want you to consider […]
If you are not on my Pragmatic Manager email list, you might not know about these opportunities to explore several topics with me this month: An Estimation hangout with Marcus Blankenship this Friday, April 10, 2:30pm EDT. If you have questions, please email me or Marcus. See the Do You Have Questions About Estimation post. Think
I am doing a google hangout with Marcus Blankenship on April 10. We’ll be talking about estimation and my new book, Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Cost or Schedule. The book is about ways you can estimate and explain your estimates to the people who want to know. It also has a number
In many of my transitioning to agile clients, the managers want to know when the project will be done. Or, they want to know how much the project will cost. (I have a new book about this, Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Cost or Schedule.) Managers ask for estimates because they want to
Update: I titled it Predicting the Unpredictable. I have finished the content for Essays on Estimation. But, I need a new title. The book is more than loosely coupled essays. It reads like a real book, with progression and everything. I have a number of ideas. They are (in no particular order): Predicting the Unpredictable:
For years, we bought the cone of uncertainty for estimation—that is, our estimates were just as likely to be over as under. Laurent Bossavit, in The Leprechauns of Software Engineering, shows us how that assumption is wrong. (It was an assumption that some people, including me, assumed was real.) This is a Gaussian (normal) distribution.
As I write the program management book, I am struck by how difficult it is to estimate large chunks of work. In Predicting the Unpredictable and Manage It!, I recommend several approaches to estimation, each of which includes showing that there is no one absolute date for a project or a program. What can you do?
Sometimes, you just need to get on with the work. You need to give yourself some breathing room so you can think for a while. Here are some tips that will help you tackle the day-to-day management work: Schedule and conduct your one-on-ones. Being a manager means you make room for the people stuff: the
This post is continued from Cost, Value & Investment: How Much Will This Project Cost, Part 1 We’ve established that you need to know how much this project will cost. I’m assuming you have more than a small project. If you have to estimate a project, please read the series starting at Estimating the Unknown:
I’ve said before that you cannot use capacity planning for the project portfolio. I also said that managers often want to know how much the project will cost. Why? Because businesses have to manage costs. No one can have runaway projects. That is fair. If you use an agile or incremental approach to your projects,