Freek.dev

A deep dive on why projects always take longer and a framework to improve future estimation

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The Fibonacci sequence is one popular scoring scale for estimating agile story points

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Playing software development on Nightmare difficulty

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Jacob Kaplan-Moss shares the technique he uses when he needs to develop a project timeline.

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Estimates are typically a necessary evil in software development. Unfortunately, people tend to assume that writing new software is like building a house or fixing a car, and that as such the contractor or mechanic involved should be perfectly capable of providing a reliable estimate for the work to be done in advance of the customer approving the work. This is pretty attainable by building contractors and auto mechanics, who generally are working with known materials building known things in known ways. ... With custom software, however, a great deal of the system is being built from scratch, and usually how it’s put together, how it ultimately works, and what exactly it’s supposed to do when it’s done are all moving targets.

https://medium.com/@ardalis/the-5-laws-of-software-estimates-fd13af46000b#.94s2f42fz

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Konstantin Kudryashov shares some thoughts on the relation between predictability and innovation.

Every time I meet a client to discuss their new project plans, I encounter the same question: "I want my software to be unique and different. How much will it cost?” The problem is that unique products and true innovation are difficult to estimate, and even harder to accurately budget for. Helping a business find the balance between the innovation they need, and the predictability they want led me to create the Innovation Slider, a tool you can use to harmonise the split between innovation and predictability in software projects.

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