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by joe_blank 2439 days ago
Being pretty young and just getting used to making estimates, this was a wonderful read!

Having to guess how long a project will take is still very scary for me. Is there any way to get over the fear of others disagreing? I always feel like I'm about to embarrass myself by either estimating to high or to low...
5 comments
adverbly 2439 days ago
It sounds to me like what you really should be learning isn't how to estimate, but rather how to change your mindset on disagreement. Disagreement is a good thing, not a bad thing. Learning how to change your own mind is a very useful skill that requires disagreement. When organizational disagreement stops, so does organizational growth. Be friendly and kind to people who you disagree with, and ask lots of questions to better understand their thinking.
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george_ciobanu 2439 days ago
No better way to learn than by trial and error. If your team is reasonable they will point out why something is easier or harder than you thought. And that's part of learning so you shouldn't feel bad about it. Would you be upset at a child learning a second language or an instrument? No, that's why they are learning because they don't know. The worst thing you can do is not try to estimate. Just make sure to do your homework, whatever that means for your projects: look at existing code, try to do a detailed breakdown that shows why you think it takes this long, read API docs etc.
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awinter-py 2439 days ago
Use your best judgment and make sure that every line item in your estimate is defensible. "I used the best information that I had access to, happy to add your information if it's better" is a good response to a challenge.

Surface uncertainty rather than hiding it, and fight for the time to resolve uncertainty before committing to a timeline. Fight to shrink the assignment if it seems too large.

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cpeterso 2439 days ago
For more practical information on software estimation, I recommend apenwarr's "An epic treatise on scheduling, bug tracking, and triage" (2017):

https://apenwarr.ca/log/20171213

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Sevii 2439 days ago
Work on enough projects where the estimates are wildly off and you will naturally start worrying about them less.
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