About software estimation and planning

Some of my random opinions about software estimation and planning…

• Software development is inherently complicated and difficult to estimate. You only really know that if you’ve been a software developer on a reasonably big project. No manager can judge that (even though they try all the time).
• Estimates should not be a goal. They are just a means to end up with good breakdown that allows teams to work efficiently by pairing up and/or swarming.
• More planning and persisting on estimates is not going to make the plans more realistic. It’s just going to annoy people or force them to give you estimates not based on anything. And don’t even dare to use the word “more accurate estimates”.
• High level estimates are fine though. They should give you a sense of size and allow you to build a decent roadmap. Roadmaps are fine too. They can help you understand the order of things and highlight the dependencies. It also creates a sense of control and predictability.
• Make such high-level plans visual and alive. Use roadmap diagrams and share the plan at a place that stimulates collaborations such as Confluence, but avoid tools like Markdown diagrams, Azure DevOps or Word for that.
• Make sure your backlog has an absolute priority across all the teams. That’s the only…