Comments on: How long will that take you? Let Legos lead the way http://blog.nerdguru.net/2007/06/how-long-will-that-take-you-let-legos-lead-the-way.html Because technical people need good soft skills to get ahead. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:43:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Anonymous http://blog.nerdguru.net/2007/06/how-long-will-that-take-you-let-legos-lead-the-way.html/comment-page-1#comment-36 Anonymous Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:56:00 +0000 http://nerdguru.dreamhosters.com/2007/06/07/how-long-will-that-take-you-let-legos-lead-the-way/#comment-36 I agree the key to getting better at task estimation is what you said in the last sentence: "repetition".<br/><br/>Problems arise when people try to estimate tasks that are new or difficult. In web development, for example, I can sit down and estimate with a fair amount of accuracy how long it takes to put together a struts-based jsp form backed by an ejb call or two. Why can I do this? Because I've done about 60 of them in the webapp we develop at work. I have already worked through all the insipid monkey wrenches that have burned through my time in the past like browser incompatibilities, css annoyances and many other time-wasters that I know as well as I know the plot to a repeat sitcom.<br/><br/>So, what screws me up? Anything new. Last month I had to modify a bunch of VBA macros in an excel worksheet. I had worked on it before about 2 years ago, but not since and had basically "forgotten" VBA. My initial estimate: 2 days. My actual time: 2 weeks.<br/><br/>I imagine that I would get similar horrific mis-estimates if there was a twist in the web-app, like, for example switching IDE's, moving to struts 2, using a new javascript library, etc. I agree the key to getting better at task estimation is what you said in the last sentence: “repetition”.

Problems arise when people try to estimate tasks that are new or difficult. In web development, for example, I can sit down and estimate with a fair amount of accuracy how long it takes to put together a struts-based jsp form backed by an ejb call or two. Why can I do this? Because I’ve done about 60 of them in the webapp we develop at work. I have already worked through all the insipid monkey wrenches that have burned through my time in the past like browser incompatibilities, css annoyances and many other time-wasters that I know as well as I know the plot to a repeat sitcom.

So, what screws me up? Anything new. Last month I had to modify a bunch of VBA macros in an excel worksheet. I had worked on it before about 2 years ago, but not since and had basically “forgotten” VBA. My initial estimate: 2 days. My actual time: 2 weeks.

I imagine that I would get similar horrific mis-estimates if there was a twist in the web-app, like, for example switching IDE’s, moving to struts 2, using a new javascript library, etc.

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