Sloan's Inbox: Any advice for estimating work?

#discuss

Heyo folks! Sloan, DEV Moderator and resident mascot, back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. 🦥

For those unfamiliar with the series, this is another installment of Sloan's Inbox. You all send in your questions, I ask them on your behalf anonymously, and the community chimes in to offer advice. Whether it's career development, office politics, industry trends, or improving technical skills, we cover all sorts of topics here. If you want to send in a question or talking point to be shared anonymously via Sloan, that'd be great; just scroll down to the bottom of the post for details on how.

So, let's get down to business...

Today's question is:

I really struggle to provide accurate time estimates when taking on projects. Does anybody have any advice when it comes to scoping work?

Share your thoughts and lets help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. 💚

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Top comments (7)

Ben Halpern • Aug 24 '23

A piece of advice: This is hard to get right, don't assume anybody else is doing it that well.

But also don't treat this is useless busy work. It's a valuable exercise.

As far as advice for doing it better: It helps to be 100% on the same page about what factors other people in the exercise are considering, this is ultimately more about team members being on the same page and working together vs just being accurate above all else.

Arthur Kh • Aug 24 '23

Try to estimate everything. By 'everything', I mean tasks ranging from how long it will take to brush your teeth to how long it will take to how long you will work on book. Don't estimate complex things all at once. If you want to estimate how long it will take to finish your work, divide it into smaller tasks and estimate them individually. The more you estimate, the more accurate you become.

Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard • Aug 24 '23

Pick a random number
Multiply by a magic constant

Randall • Aug 27 '23 • Edited

Don't just give a single date, give at least two: a 50% confidence estimate, and an 80% confidence estimate.
Via experience, learn roughly how wrong your estimates are, and take that into account for future estimates. For example, if you find that you underestimate everything by around 50%, then double all of your future estimates.
When in doubt, be conservative. It's a lot more common to underestimate than to overestimate. There's scope creep, people get sick, there are bugs that are hard to track down, etc etc. There's ALWAYS going to be more work than what you can foresee.

Developer Partners • Aug 24 '23 • Edited

Create an Excel spreadsheet.
Write down every feature needed in the app in the spreadsheet.
Try to estimate how many hours it will take to complete each one. You don't have to be perfect at it, just try your best.
Sum all the hours up.
Multiply total hours by your hourly rate.
Multiply the number you got from step 5 by 1.5 for extra safety.

Always mention that the estimate is non binding.

Here is one of our blogposts that may provide more insights. Please see the "Know the Cost" section of the link below. We haven't published it in the Dev Community yet, so here is the original link:
Top 4 Reasons to Hire a Software Development Consultant