A presentation explaining how to deal with estimations in IT project management.

1. Estimations
brought by Małgorzata Szweda, Blaze Hadzik, Magdalena Sitarek &

2. what is an estimation?
estimation
noun es·ti·ma·tion ˌes-tə-ˈmā-shən
: a judgment or opinion about something
: the act of judging the size, amount, cost, etc., of something : the act of estimating something
: a guess about the size, amount, cost, etc., of something

3. why estimate?
there is one truth:
all clients love estimations
they mostly think:
you have knowledge, you’ve done
that before, that’s piece of cake, isn’
t it?

4. why estimate?
plan
budget
communication

5. so...
how to do it well?
is that even possible???

6. spoiler!
estimation is a well-
informed guess
you’re guaranteed to do it wrong from time to time

7. be prepared!
do your research
know what you want to use
ask around

8. the golden rule
From The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master:
What to Say When Asked for an Estimate
You say "I'll get back to you."
You almost always get better results if you slow the process down and spend some time going
through the steps we describe in this section. Estimates given at the coffee machine will (like the
coffee) come back to haunt you.

9. who should estimate?
not the client
not a dev that isn’t you
you

10. planning poker
group estimation
different experiences
broader idea of time needed

11. case study
Client thought of a new feature and asked me to estimate on the call.
What do I do?
never estimate unexpected things on a call!
ask for some time for research

12. case study
Client thinks he knows better and tells me I can do it faster.
What do I do?
explain why you think it’s not correct
work with your PM
if s/he’s right you finish faster
if s/he’s wrong there can be a delay

13. case study
Lead dev from the client’s team estimated the ticket for me and it’s wrong.
What do I do?
communicate it’s possible you won’t make it
they insisted and you ran out of time - explain why
work with your PM so you can estimate instead

14. how to estimate features?
make sure you know what needs to be done
remember that you need to write tests
remember about code review
there WILL be problems

15. how to estimate features?
feature = planning + actual work + tests + code review
+ bugs-that-never-happen-but-sometimes-do

16. how to estimate features?
add some padding!
the Blaze Time Tax = 1.75

17. DOs
ok, so here we are…
1) Gather requirements (ping pm/ client if needed) and do your research (mockups, APIs, edge cases...)
2) Ask when in doubt and explain when something’s amiss
3) There is always room to screw up and for things to go wrong - add padding
4) Track elapsed time and learn from past experiences
5) Ask around - check with others / internet / seniors / grandma / PM /
6) Use more than one method to arrive at an estimate, and look for a midpoint among all of them.

18. DON’Ts
1) Never estimate during the call !!
2) Don’t let anyone estimate for you
3) Don’t estimate without checking that you have everything

19. why we fail sometimes...
1. The presence of hidden or unknown variables that are difficult or impossible to anticipate,
and sometimes even more difficult to resolve.
2. Our often-idealistic views of our own capabilities. We frequently believe that we can
achieve much more than is possible in the available time.
3. A strong human desire to please other people by telling them what they want to hear.
(After all, who wants to be the bearer of bad news?)

20. how to estimate bugs?
Don’t.
No, seriously - DON’T.
But if you have to:
some bugs can’t be estimated - they need a no-idea label
if your guess was wrong - explain why you need more time

21. how to estimate projects?
that might surprise you, but…
you usually don’t work 8h a day

22. how to estimate projects?
that might surprise you, but…
you usually don’t work 8h a day :)
how come?
9am 11am 1pm 3pm 5pm
help reqlunch
email
checking
call
email
checking

23. and finally...
always think of the worst case scenario

24. and finally...
always think of the worst case scenario
… and then add even more time :)

25. responsibility
What is responsibility?

26. responsibility
What am I responsible for?

27. responsibility
Let your client know in case of delays & blockers

28. responsibility
Don’t be quiet.

29. responsibility
Be a friend.

30. responsibility
The missing feedback loop we want to have.

31. Cases
The API that has just been updated.
The integration no one knows about.
The project you don’t know about.

32. Cases
The client changes requirements.
The client is too cool.
The client asks you how long sth would take on a call.

33. Questions?
ask us now! :)
fill in the evaluation survey
and share your feedback