(^136) 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
The Best Estimators: Those Who Do the Work
The Best Estimators: Those Who Do the Work
Joe Zenevitch
New York, New York, U.S.
hAvE yoU BEEn on A PRojECT where one person creates all the estimates
for the work to be done? Has this been a successful approach? My guess is,
probably not.
There are three major problems with this approach:
• Unless you are lucky, the developers on the team will not be at the same
skill level as the person creating the estimates. So, while the estimates
might be accurate if the lead architect were doing all the work, more than
likely the developer’s pace will vary.
• The risk that one person estimating for the entire team will be incorrect is
pretty high. The more people involved in estimating, the better.
• Developers are going to be handed an estimate they must meet. Rarely
have I seen a developer who is happy with this approach.The worst infraction is when you, as the software project manager, decide you
are qualified to provide the estimates for the team. You may think that since
you are a former developer you can adequately choose the estimates. Even if
you are still actively doing development, think again. The same issues apply as
with the lead architect scenario described above, but the longer it’s been since
you’ve done active development, the worse your estimates are going to be. And
don’t even think about estimating if you are leading a team using a technology
with which you are unfamiliar.
On our projects, we do group estimation using a wideband-delphi approach.
We start by having our business analyst describe the requirements for a feature,
the development team listens, and then team members ask clarifying questions.