Because I recently delivered a lecture at Utah Valley University titled “Overcoming Optimism” I’m tickled by Seth Godin’s quick post on optimistic time.
Giving optimistic estimates can seriously handicap a web developer. The people getting your estimates use them as a yardstick for judging your competence. Often they don’t have any better yardstick for judging your ability than how well you make your own deadlines.
It’s hard for you to be good enough to make up for consistently missing your own estimated delivery dates.
Rule of thumb: Treat every estimated date as a commitment. Give yourself plenty of time to be wrong.
How can you become good at this? Pay attention to your track record. Actually take notes on the estimates you give and how they turn out. Ask yourself some questions and adjust your estimating behavior:
- How many of your estimates are you hitting?
- Less than 80%: you probably need to give bigger estimates.
- 100%: you should consider whether you are being aggressive enough.
- How frantic are you toward the end of a schedule?
- Never in any rush: probably not aggressive enough.
- Hair on fire every time: give yourself more time.
- “What deadline?” Ouch! You need to care about deadlines.
