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Amin SAIGHI
Amin SAIGHI

Posted on • Originally published at twitter.com

Effective Estimation by Uncle Bob

After sharing my frustration about project estimate on twitter

My friend @cherif_b has shared with me a good presentation Effective Estimation presented by @unclebob in YOW! Conferences

Here you will find a summary according my understanding, let's go...

The estimate should have three characteristics:

  • To be honest is the hardest, you have to be able to communicate the bad news for the top management even if they don’t like the information. Because your image is at stake, if you are honest, you will be trustworthy, and this is the best thing in the relationship between the company and you.

  • You must be accurate: I will finish the project or task at the end of the universe, yes, it’s accurate, but you have to give something logical and acceptable.

  • Don’t be precise. Imagine you said: “it will get it done in two days, from now it’s 10 AM, It will be done by tomorrow at 04 PM”, so if you can’t achieve your task, it will be hard to convince them, they lose the trust they give you.

As you see it’s very hard to estimate and anyone can say it’s easy so…

Uncle Bob suggested to give a range for an estimate, you have to give an interval estimate, now you can get a good estimate applying these 3 principal characteristics of Effective estimation.

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