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"No, it's less effort than that"

(smartguess.is)
388 points replyifuagree | 2 comments | 21 Oct 23 04:43 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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zeroCalories ◴[21 Oct 23 09:45 UTC] No.37965404[source]▶
Management has to push for lower estimates because developers have an incentive to overestimate to make life easier. The only situation where this isn't a problem is with eager junior devs, and devs that have direct skin in the game, such as at startups or a department about to be cut for being unprofitable.
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ejb999 ◴[21 Oct 23 10:00 UTC] No.37965475[source]▶
>>Management has to push for lower estimates because developers have an incentive to overestimate to make life easier.

Bingo, having just left a mega-corp this is the status-quo of a lot of projects I had visibility into - take a trivial task, estimate it at 8-13 story points (i.e. the whole 2 week sprint), have nobody question the estimates, complete the story in 1-2 days and then chill for the other 8-9 days left in the sprint. It was pretty much an open secret.

...and nobody gets faulted by management, because they completed the story in the time they committed to.

On the other hand, if you had estimated the task at 3 days, and it ends up taking 5, you would get dinged for it. Estimate the same task at 13 story points, even if it was really only a 3, you were rewarded for meeting estimates - its a very perverse incentive structure.

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1. DiskoHexyl ◴[21 Oct 23 11:54 UTC] No.37966047[source]▶
Predictability is arguably more important than speed, especially when you have a lot of moving parts. When you have a developer that is slow, but constantly delivers on his estimates, you have a reliable IC that you can count on not failing to develop an API for some other team to integrate with. Fast and ambitious guys, who frequently fall behind their own estimates, are a pain in the ass to manage in large teams/companies.

Sure, with startups on the bleeding edge and with RnD it's different, but most of devs aren't doing that

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2. orwin ◴[21 Oct 23 13:14 UTC] No.37966566[source]▶
Fast and ambitious guys, who frequently fall behind their own estimates

I wasn't particularly fast, but I was this guy for a year. You're exactly right.