How fair do you think time estimate within 30% is? Plus/minus 20% if over 3 days

Re:How fair do you think time estimate within 30% is? Plus/m... by quickthrower2 on Friday May 10, 2019 @04:57AM (#19876192)

Id read up on the agile methodologies and not so much the processes but why they exist. Estimates within 30% is waterfall and may not be the best approach for web apps. It might be better for the client and you to use an agile approach. Or if not at least an open dialog where you can say oh X will take longer because of this technical issue, but how about we also do Y and Z, which are things you can do easily the add a lot of value etc. coding to strict estimates all the time sounds like a horrible situation.

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Re:How fair do you think time estimate within 30% is? Plus/m... by b0rsuk on Saturday May 11, 2019 @11:31PM (#19889952)

Thanks, but we do have sprints and bi-weekly progress meetings and are ostensibly working using agile. I have my opinion on my boss and the whole situation, but I'm under a heavy reality distortion field and wanted an outsider perspective. The boss basically treats any estimate as a commit. And yes I did point out (not in front of boss) that this smells like Waterfall. Agile for requirements, waterfall for costs and deadlines.

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Re:How fair do you think time estimate within 30% is? Plus/m... by quickthrower2 on Sunday May 12, 2019 @05:42PM (#19894752)

The only thing I can come up with, if you want to stay in the job, is clandestine overestimation. Anything where you are an expert but no one else is, add some padding, which makes the overall estimate for the job generous.

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Re:How fair do you think time estimate within 30% is? Plus/m... by b0rsuk on Monday May 13, 2019 @03:06PM (#19902743)

Yup, tried that until boss yelled at me. You can say any estimate that's low enough, or you'll get a stern "that's too long", or even "bullshit". After boss left my 3 team members piled on me to make the estimate 5 days instead of my 2 weeks, saying it can be later extended. I said then why not make it 2 weeks and shorten layer. No response.

The task could take 5 days but it's a lottery. A bugfix in a convoluted system.

I would go with the 5 days, but I don't trust the boss. He never takes responsibility for any setback.

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