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Ask HN: What do you think about software estimation?

2 pointsby hackerm0nkeyover 4 years ago
Some people like developers to estimate in story points based on complexity, some on estimated number of days.<p>Managers or whoever asks for things to be estimated wants to establish team velocity so they get to know how long things take and how to plan accordingly.<p>What do people think of &#x27;estimations&#x27; especially faced with developer uncertainty and the potential overhead associated with the &#x27;act&#x27; of estimating things you haven&#x27;t even started on

1 comment

byoung2over 4 years ago
My main criticism with pointing based on complexity is that people don&#x27;t think in complexity, they think in time. For example, a 1 point ticket might be to move a 50lb weight up a flight of stairs. A 5 point ticket might be to move a 500lb up a flight of stairs. If you plan a sprint with 2 developers taking 5 points each, one with 5 of the 1 point tickets described above, and the other with a single 5 point ticket described above, you lose the complexity dimension. 5 points vs 5 points looks like apples to apples, but it is really 5 apples vs 5 oranges.