The Commandments
Estimating
- Discuss the requirement with others – get perspective
- If you’re unsure, say so. If you need more information, ask for it
- Break the problem down into component tasks – get someone to challenge the breakdown
- Compare like-for-like: try to check against previous productivity on similar work
- Estimate the whole job, not just the coding. State what’s included, what’s excluded. State that it’s a GUESS
- Don’t be over-optimistic. It’s ALWAYS worse than you think