[dustin]

I once interviewed a project manager.. asked how he came up with deadlines. He said "ask the programmers and subtract 20%". Talk about a red flag in an interview!

[hellweaver666]

That's funny, because as a programmer I always estimate how long it'll take and add 20%.

[scott_w]

Only 20%?

A recent conversation I had with my MD, regarding how long to estimate for a project, involved me adding 6 months for each feature added to the specification.

We're also careful emphasise how inaccurate these estimates are, and we don't really know until we start.

Of course this is the initial "finger in the air" stage. We try to be a little more concrete with more immediate requirements. Of course, we've gotten those badly wrong too.

[baruch]

You still lose x1.20.8 = 0.96*x

[hessenwolf]

Brilliant. So much for 'just take whatever I tell you and multiply it by three'.

[ckpwong]

That's the line I heard from a previous PM I had too.

[drunkpotato]

I heard somewhere long ago "double the estimate and add a unit". Two weeks ==> Four months.

[infinite_snoop]

and then multiply that figure by 3.14 to account for running around in circles