When a software project starts, and we’ve put considerable effort into the planning tasks, we feel the project is under control. Or “in control”. However, that’s fundamentally wrong. I tried to come up with a way to describe how I understand control in software projects, to illustrate the need and applicability of the empirical management …
All that is below applies in the context that is defined here. This is not supposed to cover your personal “projects”, musical “projects”, art “projects”, home improvement “projects”, etc. You get the picture. In a company that uses the concept of “projects” to decide what to work on, fund, plan, control work (contextual boundary), projects …
When we think of estimation, we immediately associate some concepts that are attached to the estimation activity: listing all the work, sequencing all the work, assigning all the work, etc. All of those activities are accessories to estimation. The fact is that a task does not have an intrinsic duration, it has a duration that …
What we often hear from estimators is that estimates are supposed to be “intervals”, not single-point values. This blog post is now a podcast also, narrated by Billy Elchin As usual, they don’t define what “interval” should be. They just say that you have to be “accurate”, but not so “precise”. Ok, let’s explore what …
Estimation and estimates are a dreadful way to run a business. The basic idea is this: Estimates anchor benefits while not limiting your costs at all. Let’s look at this statement in parts. The second part (“estimates don’t limit costs”), is self-evident. Anyone looking at the track record of software projects will see the evidence. …
I was watching a video of @nntaleb on youtube and it became obvious to me why scheduling / estimating is a bad idea for a Software Project. Here’s my take on it. Have you ever been HOURS early arriving from a flight? No. Have you been HOURS late? Sure. Happens all the time. I’m writing …
Project management methodologies involve some kind of estimates on the content of the project (i.e. scope) and effort/duration (i.e. schedule). Simple techniques like WBS (work breakdown structure) with Gantt Charts or more complex techniques like PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) involve estimating the content and ultimately the duration or effort of each of the …
