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"No, it's less effort than that"

(smartguess.is)
388 points replyifuagree | 1 comments | 21 Oct 23 04:43 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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ResearchCode ◴[21 Oct 23 13:38 UTC] No.37966699[source]▶
Why are you pushing software engineers for "estimates"? You don't ask mathematicians how long that conjecture will take to prove. It's done when it's done.
replies(3): >>37966719 #>>37966750 #>>37969658 #
gardenhedge ◴[21 Oct 23 13:46 UTC] No.37966750[source]▶
Estimates help planning. The problem is that they often travel through a company and become immovable deadlines.
replies(1): >>37966781 #
ResearchCode ◴[21 Oct 23 13:50 UTC] No.37966781[source]▶
Planning too often is also a problem. You should not do it more often than every three to six months.
replies(1): >>37969625 #
1. gardenhedge ◴[21 Oct 23 19:07 UTC] No.37969625[source]▶
Hello waterfall my old friend. How have you been doing?

But seriously.. there's levels to planning. There's strategic planning which is less often and then implementation of delivery stages which is more on going. It is helpful to know if something will be delivered in 2 weeks or 2 months. The problem is when the dev team says 2 weeks but discovers more and knows it will be 6 weeks but the deadline is firmly set to the initial 2 week estimate.