The Future is Never Certain
We can look at what has happened in the past on projects, what is currently
happening, and what is happening in the future. If we are sloppy with our
records, we can easily have different versions of the past. If we are weak in
our communications, we can even have different perspectives of the present. With
care we can avoid both of these issues, but it is safe to say that when we are
looking into the future, we can never be certain of what will happen. This is a
limitation we need to appreciate. Read more
Estimation: Size Does Matter!
Many organizations find it difficult to explicitly take the step of deriving a size for the elements to be estimated, leaping directly from an overall definition of scope to the final effort or duration estimate.
Sizing is an essential step in the estimation process, significantly improving the insight and fidelity of the resulting estimates. How the practice of sizing fits into the overall estimation process is explored in this interactive workshop. Read more
You Can Estimate Anything!
Quite often people say that they are being asked to provide an estimate before they have enough information. This usually happens in the very early stages of a project, but can also occur anytime a major change comes in and we need to figure out how long it will take to get the job done. Read more
Putting a Finger on Rework
I gave a couple of presentations at a conference this week. In both talks, I dropped the oft-quoted industry statistic (appropriately prefixed with the dreaded “Studies show…”) that in software teams, 30-40% of all their time is spent in rework. Reference to the same stat was used by at least 2 other speakers at the conference as well. Read more
Delusional Estimation
How many of the following flights of fancy have you participated in? Read more
Hunting the Elusive Defendable Estimate
Software estimation appears to be a difficult thing to do well. This is not because software is inherently different from anything else we need to estimate, but because we have been seduced into thinking that complex approaches and involved analysis somehow makes our estimates more defendable. What often happens is that we make a simple activity difficult, fail to focus on the important elements, and end up disappointed in the results. Read more
