1. MIT Orbit Knowledgebase
  2. Product Development
  3. Planning projects

How can we get better work estimates? My developers are constantly off by a factor of 2 or more.

Elaine Chen
Updated

This is normal! No one can anticipate everything, and work estimates are asking them to do that. This is why most people estimate too little time to get work done.

The only way to improve is to measure and learn.  Ask the person doing the work to offer an estimate.  Then measure the actual time elapsed, and start building up data.  You will be able to back out the “fudge factor” for each person.

Now you can do two things: you can apply the fudge factor to future estimates, and you can also share this with the person and ask them to help move the fudge factor closer to 1 over time.

Articles in this section

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.

This website and all posts and content are intended for educational purposes only and for no other purposes including without limitation commercial purposes. Any other use must give proper attribution to the Martin Trust Center and is subject to certain legal rights contained in our license and terms of use. See full legal disclaimer HERE .
The content in this knowledgebase is subject to a non-exclusive license with share-alike restrictions and the terms of use of this site – which is available for your review HERE .

Have more questions?
Submit a request
Share it, if you like it.