Teach this to your manager: At the beginning of a task, uncertainty is highest. Under no circumstances should you give an estimate in ‘man-hours’. Even days is too precise. The first estimate should be in months or years (of course depending on the size of the project). Then, as your insight into the project grows, you refine that to months, then weeks, later days. A vague estimate with a lower and a higher bound is way more useful to your manager than a ridiculously ‘precise’ but highly speculative number.

This lesson was brought to you by either “Code Complete 2” or “Rapid Development” by Steve McConnel, and by my former manager who wanted projects estimated in minutes.

[–] Midnitte@beehaw.org 25 points 2 months ago

my former manager who wanted projects estimated in minutes.

Sorry, the number buffer overflowed.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not if your manager then takes the minimum of your estimate.

I don't work for a while anymore.

[–] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I usually say what unit of measurement we're counting in: days, weeks or months. For more detail, more specs are needed. If you can't say how many screens are in an application, I can't count how much work it'll be.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

The project will be completed by Stardate -287289.4717465754

[–] tatterdemalion@programming.dev 13 points 2 months ago

Sir, I estimate the project will be completed in 135 days and 11 hours.

[–] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just use unix milliseconds

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

Point the ticket using the value of a cryptocurrency.

[–] MeowZedong@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

my former manager who wanted projects estimated in minutes.

That wasn't a manager, that was a demon.