DeveloperWeek 2020

That dreaded phrase in engineering…“can you provide me with an estimate?” Many of us engineers cringe at the thought of putting a set number of days on a story or ticket. We all know the downfalls of estimation when tied to a story - bloat of the story to include extraneous additions when it’s overestimated and cutting of corners (think testing) when underestimated. That being said, for the product managers, business owners and product owners having a clear roadmap and sense of timeframe and budget is extremely helpful when trying to map out your strategy for product development. This talk will address some techniques your team can implement to provide estimates that don’t get tied to individual stories. The process implements agile methodologies rather than the waterfall techniques that are often tied to estimation processes. The goal of the talk will be to provide the audience with practices they can bring back to their team that help with transparency in scope and streamlined development. As the COO of a software consultancy based in NYC, I work closely with our clients and the engineering team to map out a process that offers flexibility and transparency. As such we’ve worked to develop a product discovery, estimation process, and re-estimation process that helps to guide each project we’re on.