I couldn’t say this any better myself, so why bother? Estimating is as much art as science. Fortunately, both the art and science of estimating jobs are fairly well understood.
The post on Web Worker Daily, titled Web Worker 101: Estimating Basics hits the primary suggestions that I encourage consultants and freelancers to follow, like multiplying your estimate by 2.5 to adjust for underestimating. A must-read post.
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I think that one of the biggest problems is that as project team members we’re giving estimates like “2 weeks”. “2 weeks” isn’t really an estimate, it’s a guess, a prediction.
Estimating in ranges can really help with both getting the estimate right and setting expectations with your stakeholders.
Great comment, Bruce. And I like the link back to your post on estimating in ranges.
Don’t you think that all too often the creation and “perfection” of the plan becomes an end in itself, which leads to the guessing?
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