Code Craft

Practical Ways to Estimate

With the increasing pressure to be prophets as much as programmers, how do we meet expectations? Estimation, like many other skills, is something you get better at it with experience. It’s not an old man’s game, but if you don’t work against a backdrop of schedules and set yourself targets to work toward, then you won’t grow in the skill. Practice makes perfect.

In the Real World, we rarely have the luxury of practice projects or a sandbox to experiment with timescale estimation. Somewhere along the road from junior programmer to guru, you have to pick up this skill! Sadly there is no magic formula or easy recipe for coming up with an estimate. But following these simple steps will immeasurably improve your accuracy: ...