August 2009
Beginner
252 pages
6h 2m
English
Content preview from 97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
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Chapter 68. The Best Estimators: Those Who Do the Work
HAVE YOU BEEN ON A PROJECT where one person creates all the estimates for the work to be done? Has this been a successful approach? My guess is, probably not.
There are three major problems with this approach:
Unless you are lucky, the developers on the team will not be at the same skill level as the person creating the estimates. So, while the estimates might be accurate if the lead architect were doing all the work, more than likely the developer's pace will vary.
The risk that one person estimating for the entire team will be incorrect is pretty high. The more people involved in estimating, the better.
Developers are going to be handed an estimate they must meet. Rarely have I seen a developer who is happy with this approach.
The worst infraction is when you, as the software project manager, decide you are qualified to provide the estimates for the team. You may think that since you are a former developer you can adequately choose the estimates. Even if you are still actively doing development, think again. The same issues apply as with the lead architect scenario described above, but the longer it's been since you've done active development, the worse your estimates are going to be. And don't even think about estimating if you are leading a team using a technology with which you are unfamiliar.
On our projects, we do ...