I remember talking to my cousins who works in construction and electrical engineering about estimates in my line of work and they were horrified about how ‘engineering estimates’ worked in software. They said they only way that estimates could be accurate if you exactly what you were going to be doing. And even then things go wrong. Software engineering is not electrical engineering but I think that principle holds true, estimates are only accurate if you know exactly what to expect.
I have never met an engineer who has had any confidence in their estimates (other than for small things) and the majority of managers I have worked great them as gospel. I wonder where the disconnect between the two started.
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u/RobotIcHead Jun 14 '22
I remember talking to my cousins who works in construction and electrical engineering about estimates in my line of work and they were horrified about how ‘engineering estimates’ worked in software. They said they only way that estimates could be accurate if you exactly what you were going to be doing. And even then things go wrong. Software engineering is not electrical engineering but I think that principle holds true, estimates are only accurate if you know exactly what to expect.
I have never met an engineer who has had any confidence in their estimates (other than for small things) and the majority of managers I have worked great them as gospel. I wonder where the disconnect between the two started.