[andreimackenzie]

How estimation is marketed matters, too. Don't let your stakeholders think of it as an over-estimate. It's an estimate that considers the needs of the full software development lifecycle: automating tests, developing monitoring, refactoring to clean up old tech debt, etc.

[galoisscobi]

Makes sense. It also must be nice to convey the dev lifecycle factors that go in to estimates.

Where I work refactoring is a trigger word and we are advised to never say the word when talking to management and it must never show up in any planning material/meetings etc.

Someone made the mistake of including refactoring efforts in their plans and they were asked to scrub it out.

[hoosieree]

This all boils down to how much you trust your management with the long-term health of the business. Not refactoring may actually be the right call. Maybe it will become a necessity later, maybe not.

If management just wants to flex their authority, you can inflate your initial estimates. It's only unfair when one side treats an estimate as a negotiation and the other side doesn't.