What to do when tech jobs go bad

Re:What to do when tech jobs go bad by shagie on Monday February 19, 2018 @12:34PM (#16414243)

An estimate is not a single number. Rather, an estimate says “it may take 1h if everything goes well, it may take 16h if things go bad.” This is then followed up with “at 1h, I’ll update with either a done or a revised estimate.”

Giving single numbers for an estimate with uncertainty is bad for all parties.

Additionally, with experience one can get better at giving estimates with less uncertainty for well known tasks and recognize the uncertainty for other tasks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What to do when tech jobs go bad by Retric on Monday February 19, 2018 @02:15PM (#16414968)

That's not relevant. Low / high estimates can be written in this form: X hours +/- Y%. 1-3 days seems wide but it's just 2 +/- 50%. 1 hour or 2 days ~= 1 day 1 hour +/- 90%.

AKA Y is much higher when you deal with low hour estimates.

This is most noticeable when you have lot's of tasks. If you think 200 tiny tasks may take 1 month or just over 1 year that's an almost useless estimate.

[ Parent | on HN ]