Giving time estimates for projects and features is a shared reality of many developers’ recurring tasks. Unfortunately the whole business of work estimation is inherently broken in many ways that cannot be fixed. Navigating risks, fuzzy scopes and missing specifications is less science and more of an art to be mastered.
As a senior developer, I have been a key part of creating many quotes along the years and I will share the mistakes and insights from my journey. I cannot fix the work estimation but I can help you avoid a few pitfalls and give you better tools. Estimation work has been sort of taboo in the developer community and it is time to break the silence.