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by CSMastermind
1434 days ago
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Part of the answer is don't give estimates when you can help it. I've had a lot of success just having a roadmap and telling people, this is what we're working on now, this is what's next in the pipeline, and here's where you can track our progress for yourself. Another tip I have is to constrain estimates to board timescales like Q3 or H2 when you are able to (there are certain business scenarios that do require estimates). A similar thing you can do is give your "estimate" not in the form of a date but in the form of ambiguity and scale. Or better yet just state the factors that would go into giving an estimate without offering one. Lastly I'd suggest just not shying away from commitments but making them about effort not outcome. "I have 3 developers working on this full time and it will be their sole focus until we ship. Nothing you say or do is going to get this feature launched any faster than it's going to be now." |
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1) You work anywhere near money and commerce. The existence of Black Friday and the following weeks of shopping frenzy ensure that you will always be very aware what date Thanksgiving is. And that everybody will need timelines especially close around that date.
2) You work on a product that also gets marketing. There's a lead time of several months for a good marketing effort with coordinated press, and you really don't want to have all that lined up and then blow your timeline.
If you can help it, at all, learn estimation. Sure, don't share it if your management is incompetent at handling estimations, but the ability to predict a timeline with error bars is extremely useful. Practice by yourself. You'll be happy you did.
(And if your estimates are reasonably correct and you have decent management, you experience magic like "OK, then let's cut scope" or "Is there anybody who'd accelerate this if they were on your team". With a heavy nod to the fact that there are not enough managers who can pull off that magic - because they never understood estimation)