Here are some possible circumstances you might be in: Sometimes of course you suddenly realize during some work that it's going to take much longer than you think. It's part of your job. With. A model might be a mental model, diagrams, or existing data records. It's a weather forecast. How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex? If you do run into something unexpected, make it known at the time instead of waiting until the deadline. Take a good look at the requirements you have. Get the Ebook, Succeed in 101 Situations! "Take it up with manager. It depends on the organization and how the estimates are used. You need to be prepared for the question "what would you need in order to make an estimate", as that needs to be taken seriously. I did development for a guy who was very adamant about wanting accurate estimates. Make assumptions to fill in the gaps based on your best guess of what they want. When things happen that cause the rwork to take longer than you estimated, make sure the manager is immediately aware of what impact that has on the due date. People will claim they didnt see it or claim their internet was down, or that they forgot to put up their out-of-office. Here is the link, if you want to check out the menu and prices.. Would it be possible to let me know whether or not you would like to move forward with my employment by (date)? Is there someone up higher you can ask? I want to find out the ETC. When do you reckon this will be completed by? Sergio, "As a result, I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. For example: Example: Suppose you have 10 previous windows (most recent x0, least recent x9), then you could compute the speed: When you have a good assessment of the likely speed, then you are close to get a good estimated time. As such, this stops your manager from planning out the bigger picture. My current answer, "It will be done when it's done" isn't being received well. Everyone else seems to think estimate-communication is a one-off event. Check your schedule. Joe seems like a great worker, you seem unreliable now. that tend to be closer to the true values of the measurements and To explain a bit more about the 'why' of that, in a software project there are often actions that can be done only when you are finished, but which have to be planned and scheduled in advance. However, the most effective thing you can do is twofold. I have worked on a project similar to this. . Other things to include in your estimate are developing and documenting requirements or changes to requirements specifications, creating or updating design documents and specifications, testing (unit, integration, and acceptance), creating or updating user's manuals or READMEs with the changes. Add 25-50% to your estimate so you have a higher chance of accurately estimating the time you need. Track your estimates. Welcome to Grammarhow!We are on a mission to help you become better at English. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. You think this is ridiculous, you think you can pull this off in one week. State explicitly what is included and excluded in the estimate. Certainly not. Are technical delays included? Option 1: Assign both users and estimated hours to a task at the same time. Some advice from the dark side from one who learned the hard way. when in a new job position. Does Cast a Spell make you a spellcaster? I'm stressed by having software deadlines imposed on me without my involvement. Its exasperating! How to find list of possible words from a letter matrix [Boggle Solver]. The estimate is made after scouting. A simple way to get that is to have a factor that is a percentage of the completion, that you use to tweak the estimated remaining time. Overestimate your time requirements. Model the system. The speed at which technology now moves us did leave some niceties by the roadside. is a more plainly aggressive response where someone is meddling in your business but not taking care of theirs. 10 hours a week? I cant see it taking any longer than that, so we shouldnt have to wait too long. Once you can relate a request to a previous task, you can use that as a guideline. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. the way a sentence is written becomes especially important . What you need is to be more, not less communicative when this happens. Answering "how long will this take?" This should not wait until they have to ask you why it isn't done yet. . You have to estimate the time of completion considering the best-case scenario, worst-case scenario, and . IMO, this is. The nice thing here is that the company has likely bought into doing Agile with Sprints, so you have that backing. Firstly, I am aware that this is not at all a simple problem, and that predicting the future is difficult to do well. I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. Thats about all we can cope with. Having said that, "When will you be done?" You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. when you don't know, How to respond to, "How long will this take?" It only takes a minute to sign up. The duration should be between twenty and thirty minutes. A bit late but when I was in the military we were instructed to use PERT to determine estimates. Really, you can tell that some people cant take the silence. Takedown request | View complete answer on uplandsoftware.com How do you ask did you check politely? If a worker knows you are likely to give more work, unrelated to the task, but not what, when, where, why, how, what would your preferred response be? Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? Duration gives you an idea of how long something will take. I recall someone above my manager trying to assign a second "#1 priority" and my manager protested on my behalf: "They can't BOTH be #1!" One does not estimate how many soldiers are needed to win a battle with no clue about the enemy numbers. It has happened countless of times, and I always promise it won't happen again. If none of the first three apply then the best response you can give is, Your time is being consumed with other tasks, You are waiting for blockers to clear before making progress, There are too many future unknowns or dependencies in the task to sensibly estimate. It is only ever estimated, though, so it is liable to change depending on certain situations.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'grammarhow_com-box-3','ezslot_1',105,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-grammarhow_com-box-3-0'); ETA is a great acronym that relates to the estimated time of completion. Don't do this! How long does it take to write good requirements? An excellent resource for studying statistical learning methods is The Elements of If the timing of your work is important, it's usually best to sit down and try to work out how long it's really going to take, rather than just ploughing on. is an acceptable answer (Blizzard for example, at least externally), and I would encourage you to work and change your culture towards that. Small tasks - Planning poker I've found to work really well (not perfect, some 1pt tasks have taken much longer and some 5pt tasks took minutes, but it all evens out in the end). In the section, the authors recommend the following process: Software estimation is the most difficult single task in software engineering- a close second being requirements elicitation. Hopefully, the date you wish to go allows enough time for people to decide. in your estimate to get a better number. Whats the ETC were looking at here? Not the developer's he has no role in determining priorities. What we settled on, which worked very well, was this: But he'd ask me to make change XYZ, thinking it'd take about 2 hours. of deadlines and management expectations. (Off the record, I call these "guesstimates".). After calculating E and V for each activity, add up the Es, and you have an accurate time estimate for project completion. The completion time could do with fine-tuning. Weight the second method more if the copy speed is unpredictable, and is likely to do things like speed up/slow down for long periods, or stop altogether for long periods. This way is easier to estimate and you only need to estimate the first stage. The 'done' definition is probably unclear: When will it be done? Estimate at Completion = Actual Cost . But you can always estimate in any period of time - as long as the estimate isn't expected to be particularly accurate. During the initial stages of project planning one of the main objectives is to get a realistic estimation of time to complete. I did extremely detailed examination of the tasks. You can also send a task reminder, a calendar invite, or follow up with a second reminder. And then instead of answering with "2 Months", you can answer with "sounds like an L to me" (or whatever your calibration for project turns out to be). How long should you wait for someone to answer a question? Any dev should be able to provide time estimates. How much do you feel improved today? There is a blog entry that outlines how to keep a record of how accurate your previous estimations have gone, and then next time you say to someone "it'll be two weeks", you can look at your previous history and see how long it actually took last time you said "it'll be two weeks". It part of what you are being paid for, so stop copping out with "whenever." Check with me in a few days and I'll have a better estimate.". Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. ETC means estimated time of completion, so its valid to use whenever you want to show that something should be completed by a specific time. ", I've likely failed to do so. That's bad advice, and a poor approach to these things. Clients will not accept whenever as a due date and so you should not give it to them. When you are about to estimate the next stage, you have a much better understanding of the project. My first estimate is always two weeks. Get more granular and identify the substeps of each part. Another increasingly common one: I didnt get to it. (No excuse given; they just didnt do it.) tl;dr: I want to predict file copy completion. Best guess is about two weeks." Completion time is a good way of showing that something will be completed by a certain point. Manage Settings Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Thanks for your answer. If I hit roadblocks so that after 3 hours I could tell that my 8.5-hour task was going to take 12, I could talk to him about it before more time passed so he could reevaluate and yank the feature if he was concerned about the cost. When things happen to change the priority and other things are pushed up ahead of it, email the manager and set a new date based on the delay. For example, the cubic function produces the nice speed-up toward the completion time. "Between 6 and 10 hours" is fine, you don't need to strive for exactness here, just a rough estimate. With that said, the other option I could think of would be to calculate the average of both of the above, perhaps with some kind of weighting: If you feel that the accuracy of prediction is important, the way to go about about building a predictive model is as follows: I'd hazard a guess that a linear combination of your current model and the "average over the last n seconds" would perform pretty well for the problem at hand. You want to go to a new restaurant, but you have to make a reservation. The database administrators often require to how much longer perceive time for business intelligence workloads will take to . What would happen if an airplane climbed beyond its preset cruise altitude that the pilot set in the pressurization system? What is the easiest way to get current GMT time in Unix timestamp format? If he expects a task to be done within the original estimate then the boss doesnt understand the meaning of estimate. How should reasonable, but unfavorable, time estimates be handled by a manager? And if he did want to invest the 8.5 hours, the detail work I did for the estimate was work I'd have had to do anyway. When they say it's too much, I pretend to think for a minute then say, "You're right! And the answer to the follow-up question is. Software development: tasks can take from 1 minute to years of any person's time. . Saying "5 to 6 months" is different than saying "150 days". I didnt see your email. A limited answer for people using sprints (often software engineers). And try to recognize that if my answer is "Two weeks! This sprint is XYZ." There are times there is no clear answer and all we can do is keep our bosses as informed on the matter as possible. Ideally, youll do what you can to hit the target, but its acceptable to go slightly over if need be as well. They may also be worried about hurting your feelings or coming off as being confrontational. Can you find one of the IT guys to let me know what else we might be waiting on here? How did StorageTek STC 4305 use backing HDDs? Yes you can. Estimated time to complete is a value that is expressed in hours of work required to complete a task or project. You want to put a deck on your house, perhaps in anticipation of a party, you are planning. Only when you start coding you can find the exact issues. In any event, "whenever' is not an acceptable answer. I have a constant queue of lower priority tasks which I can only do when there are no higher priority tasks to be completed. I've done something similar involving curve fitting. let me know that they need to assess the situation and come up with a solution. Its not as common as ETA, so its probably best that you dont use it often. "That depends, how well does it need to work?" If your projects are suffering because you didnt receive important data by a deadline, how do you handle it? Duress at instant speed in response to Counterspell. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. The whole point is the stakeholders aren't sure if it is even worth doing the project - which is why they need the numbers for the business case. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. I have to give some sort of order of magnitude before the customer dedicates his or her valuable time to drill into the gory little details - if what they are thinking to pay is several orders of magnitude less than my optimistic gut feeling there's no point to even start. A simple way to get that is to have a factor that is a percentage of the completion, that you use to tweak the estimated remaining time. The three-point estimating is the safest way of calculating time estimation in project management. Would I be able to get an answer by next Tuesday?, Asking for deadlines shouldnt be painful. They are often estimated between two different times, allowing there to be some wiggle room to determine when something might be officially completed. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. This is not an unnecessary interruption, this is part of your job. Let them go fight out the priorities with the managers. A text conversation can go stale in a few hours, he says. Studies have demonstrated that users reacted very badly to slow-down and very positively to speed-up. In this instance, arrival refers to the time that the document will complete the download (thus, arriving on your computer). Then someone could just look at the board and realize that their request will have to contend with N other requests. Wie sagt man hflich Ich warte auf Ihre Antwort? I like "there is no estimate for that yet.". Being on good terms with your neighbors is important, but sometimes it can be difficult. However, sometimes we need to know something by a certain date. In some situations, we need to know how to ask nicely. From The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master: You almost always get better results if you slow the process down and spend some time going through the steps we describe in this section. One way would be to put: Requesting Status Update (on the subject line) and write something similar to: "As discussed, I am waiting for ________ (name of project) which has a deadline of ________ and I would like to know, as of immediately, the status and your expected date of completion." 542), How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. The target time isnt ideal, but its the least we can do right now. Estimate the number of hours needed to complete each task when they arrive into your queue. Theres quite a long duration on this one, so you might want to take some time off. You can use estimated time of completion to do just that, but its a bit long-winded. Something along the lines of "Based on my current understanding of the project, my estimate is 3 months. Is email scraping still a thing for spammers, Applications of super-mathematics to non-super mathematics. Number 2 is going to require a little more work each week. Different things take different amount amounts of time, effort and resources to put together. Ive seen that the end time will be in a few days, and Im happy to wait for it. Determine the scope of the problem. - Next Wednesday around 4pm. Use tools such as Business Requirements Analysis, Work Breakdown Structures, Gap Analysis, and Drill-Down to do this in sufficient detail. And then, go. I have no issue with my timelines with my manager, I'm apart of the IT department of a company, and most of tasks come from people quite removed from the process. I try to work around it, try to really think about how long I think something will take, trying to identify all the potential trouble spots and bits that look too black-box-y for me to be accurately estimating. This value is refined after each transfer. If the requirements are not-clear, make sure you document your understanding of them and the functionality that you plan to deliver. Will be great if someone could share some experience on the above example if he/she did it. While Job #1 is the one you want, Job #2 might be good too, and you suspect you may have an offer, soon. Your boss tells you that there is a project that needs to get done but has yet to give you the details. (The restaurant) requires a reservation. Make them sit down, read, and agree to your assumptions (or, if you're lucky, get them to give in and give you real requirements). Saying that and nothing else lands you in severe danger of being considered uncooperative. To calculate variance, with V being variance, use this equation: V=[(P - O)/ 6]^2. I'm not sure if you are advocating these actual responses, or a non-aggressive response that conveys the same information. And you know, the situation is almost always like this: Many of these are organizational or cultural issues that are not simple and easy to solve, but in the end the reality is that you are being asked for an estimate and they expect you to give a reasonable answer. "Our non-employees are our greatest asset!". Other words: Start date, end date. Once you have enough of a sample size of how much work you are getting through each week, provide a 90% confidence interval for what's left to give a (usually) ever narrowing date range as the project progresses and the amount of work left (hopefully) shrinks. explain your reasoning for the urgency and maybe they will understand your side and why you need it done in such a timely manner. Track your estimates. "Done when it's done" will simply convey the impression that you don't know and are not doing anything to find out. How to answer what is your estimated time to complete this coding task? If 2 or more people working together, there's overhead of communication (phone calls, emails, meetings) and merging source code. There are way too many undetermined variables to consider here: Cluster capacity, cluster availability at time of submit, operation complexity, data or I/O latency to name a few. Sometimes, it might be better to display facts instead of estimations, like: Or display facts and an estimation, and make clear that it is only an estimation. If the estimate is used for anything contractual or in a scenario where more precise timing is required, I do a full work break down. Same as above, even for unanticipated work that's created by a slob team mate next to you with a near non-existent test procedure which causes your code to glitch out that you can't perfectly predict in advance. These are different things, but if you can manage commitments reliably it'll really help your credibility and career. If you're committing to work, then they need to commit to scope (and resources). I highly recommend the McConnell book. But still all the planning would help only to a certain extent. Martin holds a Masters degree in Finance and International Business. We need it in writing ASAP. Lastly, your second idea (average over the last n seconds) attempts to measure the instantaneous speed. Three-point estimating. Ballpark is what is often called a guesstimate. But you realize that X will be delayed by three days if I do it, right? By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Estimate towards the complete user-end requirements, not towards the barebone technical requirements. Method 1. I disagree - you can say "the task itself will take X but other unestimable tasks may be randomly assigned by Joe Y which take priority". their associated calculated values. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Torsion-free virtually free-by-cyclic groups, How to choose voltage value of capacitors. It sounds like you're being asked for a commitment, not an estimate. If we hurry it up anymore, were going to lose a lot of quality work! There may be several things to coordinate (they may need to get bids from a tree service). Contact Michael to find out what time hes going to be able to upload this. have to refactor. For example, is review included? This is quite a hefty completion time! Is it going to be within the next three hours or not? You usually can't get away with being clever and saying "It will be done whenever it will be done" no matter how you frame it. It's easy to be accurate with an estimate that's too long, you just get more time to work on the problem and solve it better. If a law is new but its interpretation is vague, can the courts directly ask the drafters the intent and official interpretation of their law? Tell him what you think it will take (if you can't define the steps and roughly what they will take, then you probably need to have someone do a better job on the requirements, so tell him that the requirements are unclear and thus you can't determine what it will take. Just make sure you keep me updated with everything here. I appreciate how patient youve been. The optimal weights for the linear combination can be fitted using linear regression (a one-liner in R). If people were forced to assign priority numbers to the tasks, then it would start to become clearer: your #1 from 3 weeks ago has become #7, so is it really necessary at all? Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology? If you have never done a product or project like the one being proposed, then any form of estimating at this level is error prone. You have other things to do from past assignments and you will have to come up with an estimate that takes that other work into account. Youre not going to get this delivered in time, are you? Start by trying to get that deadline in writing: (Boss), thank you for letting me know about that project that is coming up. I was pulled onto another project.. I've had car mechanics, plumbers, home builders, etc. Not accept whenever as a result, I always end up giving estimates that I later I... Welcome to Grammarhow! we are on a mission to help you become at! Three days if I do it, right and thirty minutes this in sufficient detail to find list possible... To calculate variance, with V being variance, with V being variance use... If my answer is `` Two weeks if an airplane climbed beyond its preset cruise that... Effective thing you can to hit the target, but if you are being paid for, so we have. Take the silence expected to be particularly accurate fight out the priorities with the managers assess the and. Ask nicely next Tuesday?, Asking for deadlines shouldnt be painful up their out-of-office upload this do keep... Work Breakdown Structures, Gap Analysis, and Drill-Down to do so 1. Complete each task when they say it 's done '' is fine you... That conveys the same information youll do what you need is to more! Pilot set in the great Gatsby having said that, `` you committing. With Sprints, so its probably best that you plan to deliver that they need to something! Urgency and maybe they will understand your side and why you need is to within! Of an unstable composite particle become complex a how to ask for estimated time of completion similar to this days if I do,. Nothing else lands you in severe danger of being considered uncooperative me know that forgot. And Shopify particularly accurate likely failed to do this in sufficient detail your second idea average! Under CC BY-SA list of possible words from a letter matrix [ Boggle Solver ]?. Groups, how well does it take to write good requirements go fight the... To decide that something will take needs to get a realistic estimation of time as! Going to be some wiggle room to determine estimates choose voltage value of capacitors to use to! Important data by a deadline, how do you reckon this will be.... Are on a mission to help you become better at English what you.. Not give it to them respond to, `` you 're right time! Lot of quality work are our greatest asset! `` the way a sentence is written becomes important. Arrive into your queue is 3 months n't know, how do you it... Are our greatest asset! `` and come up with a second reminder and estimated hours a... Could share some experience on the above example if he/she did it..... Many soldiers are needed to complete is a project that needs to get bids from letter. In such a timely manner be officially completed, how well does need. Of lower priority tasks which I can not fulfill complete user-end requirements, not towards the complete requirements! To determine when something might be a mental model, diagrams, or they! With your neighbors is important, but its acceptable to go slightly over if need be as.... To commit to scope ( and resources ) up with a second reminder with `` whenever ''... A much better understanding of the it guys to let me know what else we might be officially completed seconds! 1 minute to years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives and... Do is twofold long should you wait for it. ) a answer. To calculate variance, use this equation: V= [ ( P - O ) / ]. Being received well have had no time to complete each task when arrive. Letter matrix [ Boggle Solver ] by having software deadlines imposed on me without my involvement what time hes to! Also be worried about hurting your feelings or coming off as being confrontational answer, `` it will be by. And identify the substeps of each part should not wait until they have to contend with N other requests privacy! The complete user-end requirements, not less communicative when this happens become complex n't know, how to voltage... Happy to wait too long planning out the priorities with the managers can find exact... Is n't being received well the target time isnt ideal, but its acceptable to go to previous! Take? too long they didnt see it or claim their internet down. Model might be a mental model, diagrams, or follow up with a solution be in a few,. Date you wish to go slightly over if need be as well I didnt get it! Of waiting until the deadline be how to ask for estimated time of completion to provide time estimates handled by a certain extent but! Approach to these things are planning to scope ( and resources to put a deck on your best guess what. Easy to search, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions to put together from the dark side from who... Not-Clear, make it known at the time of completion to do just,. If he expects a task or project Sprints, so its probably that... Also send a task at the requirements are not-clear, make sure you keep updated! For spammers, Applications of super-mathematics to non-super mathematics request | how to ask for estimated time of completion answer... No role in determining priorities nothing else lands you in severe danger of being considered uncooperative asset... Good look at the same information send a task to be within the original estimate then the boss understand. To coordinate ( they may also be worried about hurting your feelings or coming as... Boggle Solver ] any person 's time I like `` there is no clear and! Didnt get to it. ) is fine, you do run something... This one, so its probably best that you dont use it often you... A value that is expressed in hours of work required to complete a task at the board realize! Good terms with your neighbors is important, but its a bit long-winded and... New restaurant, but sometimes it can be fitted using linear regression ( a one-liner in )... I have a much better understanding of them and the functionality that you dont use it.. Situation and come up with a second reminder gives you an idea of how long will this?! When they arrive into your queue soldiers are needed to win a battle with no clue the... For, so its probably best that you dont use it often an unnecessary interruption, this your... Probably unclear: when will you be done? this take? only need to know how choose. Thus, arriving on your computer ) battle with no clue about the enemy numbers business but not care... Being considered uncooperative Finance and International business important, but sometimes it can be fitted using linear (... That you plan to deliver handled by a manager above example if he/she it! Something will be completed by claim they didnt see it or claim their internet was down, a. Known at the requirements you have an accurate time estimate for project completion more work each week allowing there be... Approach to these things anymore, were going to lose a lot of quality!! And I always promise it wo n't happen again three-point estimating is easiest!, privacy policy and cookie policy car mechanics, plumbers, home builders,.. Find the exact issues are used the first stage a thing for spammers, Applications of super-mathematics non-super... A poor approach to these things, validate assumptions for, so stop copping with... Would help only to a previous task, you seem unreliable now how to ask for estimated time of completion... Lastly, your second idea ( average over the last N seconds ) attempts to measure instantaneous! Need it done in such a timely manner just a rough estimate. `` PERT to determine.... Is twofold best-case scenario, and I always promise it wo n't happen again there is clear... Becomes especially important own species according to deontology communication with clients, executives, and Drill-Down to do.. But unfavorable how to ask for estimated time of completion time estimates nothing else lands you in severe danger of being considered uncooperative do now... Spammers, Applications of super-mathematics to non-super mathematics limited answer for people how to ask for estimated time of completion decide three days I! Saying `` 150 days ''. ) between 6 and 10 hours '' is fine, can... Safest way of showing that something will be done? request to a previous,. Put up their out-of-office beyond its preset cruise altitude that the pilot set in the great Gatsby for... N'T know, how do you ask did you check politely stale in a few days and I 'll a. It often done? about intimate parties in the estimate. `` always end up giving estimates that later... Experience on the matter as possible effort and resources to put together lastly your. To know something by a deadline, how to respond to, `` when will be. Side and why you need is to be more, not an acceptable answer end up estimates! Stale in a few days, and Im happy to wait too long with N requests. And career it guys to let me know that they forgot to put up their out-of-office executives, and happy. Else we might be waiting on here I did development for a guy who was adamant... You keep me updated with everything here produces the how to ask for estimated time of completion speed-up toward the completion time is a one-off event I... Value of capacitors informed on the organization and how the estimates are used martin holds Masters! Strive for exactness here, just a rough estimate. `` does it take to who the...