this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
911 points (99.1% liked)
Programmer Humor
19176 readers
1043 users here now
Welcome to Programmer Humor!
This is a place where you can post jokes, memes, humor, etc. related to programming!
For sharing awful code theres also Programming Horror.
Rules
- Keep content in english
- No advertisements
- Posts must be related to programming or programmer topics
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Teach this to your manager: At the beginning of a task, uncertainty is highest. Under no circumstances should you give an estimate in ‘man-hours’. Even days is too precise. The first estimate should be in months or years (of course depending on the size of the project). Then, as your insight into the project grows, you refine that to months, then weeks, later days. A vague estimate with a lower and a higher bound is way more useful to your manager than a ridiculously ‘precise’ but highly speculative number.
This lesson was brought to you by either “Code Complete 2” or “Rapid Development” by Steve McConnel, and by my former manager who wanted projects estimated in minutes.
Not if your manager then takes the minimum of your estimate.
I don't work for a while anymore.
Your minimum estimate should be your actual estimate times three.