Ten Reasons Estimation and Planning Fails and What to do About It

Universally, estimating software stories and tasks is hated by developers and most normal people. Almost as universally agreed, the results obtained from forecasting using those estimates are dismal. This session begins by listing the top ten reasons why estimation is a flawed approach and then goes onto offer simple alternative techniques. The alternative techniques described are simple to implement and will perform better than traditional estimation (not a high bar), and often better than intuition alone.

By attending this session you will learn –

- The top ten reasons why current estimation fails

- The situations when estimation is irrelevant and misleading (#NoEstimates)

- The difference between forecasting and estimating

- How little data is needed to be better than intuition alone

- Simple forecasting approaches that don’t fail – Monte Carlo Forecasting