Joe's Jottings
Jottings Number 37, Reply C, by Joe Podolsky:
From: uunet!HP-PaloAlto-om4.om.hp.com!JOE_PODOLSKY
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 95 09:26:31 -0700
Great comments, Bob. Thanks.
I have two immediate reactions to your good advice about making the
estimate double worst case:
1) It usually won't sell. I think that our customers are often
co-conspirators in the bad estimate process. I have had the
experience (several times) of giving accurate estimates and being told
that the job had to be done in less time and to change the estimate,
usually by making high risk, improbable assumptions. Have others of
you had this experience?
2) Piggybacking on the heroes vs. process discussion, we most often do
not include specific people as part of our assumptions even though
they are very much part of our reality. I've never seen a project
that says "I can do it in six months with Suzie and Charlie, but if I
have to use others, it's probably 18 months." Have any of you seen
projects that were estimated with the names of specific people? Do
any of you even know of a tool that allows for this type of "personal"
assumption?
Joe