Comments on: Estimation anti-patterns

By: LaSSar2000 Blog » Blog Archive » Liz Keoghs blog » Estimation anti-patterns

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 08:02:01 +0000

[...] Liz Keoghs blog » Estimation anti-patterns. [...]

By: Nino Wael

Nino Wael — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:55:10 +0000

Extremely funny. And sadly very realistic too.

By: How Can Software Development Avoid The Need For A Hero? | Regular Geek

How Can Software Development Avoid The Need For A Hero? | Regular Geek — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:12:33 +0000

[...] to really be funny. I was reminded of one such post by a colleague last week. Liz Keogh wrote about Estimation Anti-Patterns about two months ago. Much of the post is somewhat funny, but I have been involved in projects that [...]

By: liz

liz — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:10:14 +0000

Hi Inanc,

Check the article I linked at the top for a different way of doing things: http://dannorth.net/2009/07/the-perils-of-estimation

There’s one solution. Lean / Kanban’s SLAs are another, though difficult to introduce in an environment without trust.

By: Inanc

Inanc — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:37:06 +0000

I love very much these type of posts. Because, they’re rich in talk but does not provide any useful solutions to the problems at hand. Please, don’t understand me wrong, I do not target this article.

Estimation is a needed practice from the business perspective. Or what else do we need? I personally know that many programmers are lazy and are the people of gaming the systems. Not only the place they’re in makes them so. They’re innately so. Most of them are the people of humiliation. Humiliating with most of the things around them. Yes, people want to do good job. And, programmers too. But, in their way, and when they want it to. I don’t know where I am trying to reach with these thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

By: Andy Marks

Andy Marks — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:00:14 +0000

I love these and have come across many of these at some stage or another. I have a couple to add as well…

False Sense of Accuracy Estimation. When an estimate is presented as a single figure with no range of values, best/worst/likely scenarios or probability distribution associated with it.

False Sense of Precision Estimation. When an estimate for a year of work is presented down to the day, an estimate for a month of work down to the hour, etc.

By: pandres

pandres — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:08:15 +0000

When asked for an estimation you always need to give a number, no matter what.

By: Troy Tuttle

Troy Tuttle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:31:37 +0000

Love the list! I have one more to add: “False Security Blanket Estimation”

This occurs when a team hits their estimated sprint commitment. But a closer examination of actual development time shows that many of the 2 hour tasks took 8 hours and some of the 8 hour tasks took 2 hours, making it a wash. But teams like this will pat themselves on the back for doing a good job of estimating.