Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas I have said a thing or two about estimates in the past; and it generally leads to no good. What I do sometimes need to do is clarify my perspective, because people don’t get it. As always, definitions are important – so I’m to clarify what I think of when […]
The cone of uncertainty is a software model that provides pre-baked multipliers to convert a single-point “most likely” estimate into a range, based on the broad stage of a well-managed sequential software development project. That isn’t to say it can’t also be applied to iterative software development – depending on the details of the method […]
A fader is a control you can use to vary the volume of sound, the intensity of light, or the gain on a video or audio signal. We have all seen giant sound desks in expensive studios with arrays of motorised faders controlling the mix of a recording. The important thing to remember is that […]
If you read my recent note on Estimating With Time And Relative Sizes you might be interested in this method of generating relative sizes. Firstly, some important ground rules. You want a group of people to generate a size simultaneously and you don’t want to let anyone say numbers out loud, or undermine another individuals […]
If you are estimating work, the chances are that you are on a gradual philosophical journey that starts with time-based estimates. Estimating how many hours, days, weeks and months a task will take is what I like to call “novice estimating”. Almost everyone knows how long these units of measurement are, which makes them very […]