In my last post about Estimation Purposes – I spent a little time talking about the reason that our customer might want to estimate, and how estimation informs our conversation with the customer.
But the reason for estimation goes beyond the customer, and into our own management and leadership.
Listening to the #NoEstimates conversations that have been going on, I realized that most were focused on estimation only in the context of a project. As if the sole purpose of the estimate is to determine how much the project will cost, and how quickly it can be done.
On another post that I am working on I talk about management and leadership activities, things that are “meta” to the project and meta to the people who are doing the work. Forecasting. One of the things that managers are responsible for are forecasts. They need to compare their incoming budget forecast with their resource forecast. They need to plan when they onboard and release contract employees, and how leadership will be assigned to projects. They need to forecast how resources will be deployed so that all projects will have access to the skills required to get to done.
Estimates give them the ability to look ahead, to forecast, to plan, to lead.Continue Reading