Intro

You can find here a definition of an estimation. I’m not going over this.

By formal estimations I mean the ones widely known, documented, and discussed in software engineering, such as time and story points.

I don’t know if “formal estimations” is an accurate term. Simply “Estimations fail”  sounds too much like a clickbait title to me and I want to avoid that. This is also why the title is so long.

The problem

Why?

Why formal estimations don’t work: because of people. I am not saying the estimation methodologies themselves are totally bad. How people use them is the issue: managers just want nice numbers to report to higher managers, and engineers don’t know how to assess work.

Not to go into the old “story points do not include time, they help you find the time” topic. Story points are about… the story. Not about the person. End of… story. And not to mention that estimations are approximations, not hard limits. Continue reading Formal estimations fail and what works instead for me