Chapter 14. Estimating at the right level with the right people

Estimating software is a mystery for most teams. Teams can spend huge amounts of time breaking down features to create their estimates, but the actual time needed is usually a vastly different number. The issue lies in two areas: techniques and expectations.

Most teams use traditional estimation and capacity-planning techniques. Traditional techniques are dependent on constants and repetitive work. A traditional planning process wants to know how much time it takes to build a widget, how many machines are available to build the widgets, and how many hours a day the machines can be used for building the widgets.

As you probably know, each piece of software is unique, and it's difficult ...

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