When I started my first job as a developer, I was eager to prove myself, to test my skills, and fueled by my love for coding, a true gladiator of the team who never shied away from a challenge. I was assigned a feature to implement in a complex application and asked to estimate how long it would take. Confident in my own abilities, I based my estimation entirely on my skills and experience, without fully understanding the intricate system I was about to touch. The system itself wasn’t easy, but what made it harder was that the entire ecosystem was different from anything I was used to and I didn’t know nearly as much as I thought I did.
I thought I had it all under control until reality hit. The feature was far more complicated than I anticipated, with hidden dependencies and quirks I hadn’t accounted for. I underestimated, rushed, burned myself out, and delivered code I wasn’t proud of.
That was my first lesson in how bad estimation can wreak havoc on both developers and the product.
When Estimation Becomes a Trap :
Estimating how long a feature or project will take is always difficult. Developers know this well: what looks like a simple task can quickly turn into hours of debugging, testing, and rewriting. Still, companies often want exact deadlines right from the start. When those deadlines are unrealistic, developers end up stuck in a no-win situation: either they rush and cut corners, or they fall behind, leading to stress, blame, and frustration…
Bad estimation creates stress in two main ways:
Time Pressure: Developers are given deadlines that don’t match the real effort required. Suddenly, a two-week task feels like a sprint against the clock. Sleep, focus, and creativity take a hit.
Unclear Scope: Without clarity on requirements, developers can’t estimate accurately. This leads to constant scope creep additional features or fixes pile up, further straining the timeline.
The Domino Effect of Stress :
Stress in development doesn’t just hurt morale it hurts results. Rushed work leads to buggy code, incomplete features, and poor documentation. Teams may release something that “works” but it’s fragile, expensive to maintain, and often frustrating for users.
Moreover, chronic stress impacts team dynamics. Collaboration suffers, creativity declines, and the risk of burnout rises. Ironically, the very effort to save time through aggressive estimation often costs more time in the long run.
Better Estimation Practices :
The key isn’t perfection it’s realism and communication. Some strategies that help:
Break tasks into smaller chunks: Smaller tasks are easier to estimate and track.
Buffer time for unknowns: Accept that not everything can be predicted.
Involve the team: Collective estimation (like Planning Poker) leads to more accurate timelines and shared responsibility.
Prioritize transparency: If an estimate feels off, communicate early. Management and stakeholders benefit from honesty.
Conclusion :
Looking back, that first experience taught me one of the most valuable lessons of my career: estimation isn’t just about numbers, it’s about setting the stage for good work. My eagerness to prove myself made me underestimate the challenge, and in the end, the stress cost me more than the time I was trying to save.
Since then, I’ve learned that realistic estimation done with care, openness, and collaboration isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. It protects developers from unnecessary stress, improves the quality of the product, and keeps the team healthy.
In software development, the quickest path isn’t always the best path. Sometimes, slowing down and taking the time to estimate properly is the only way to move forward with confidence for the project, for the team, and for yourself.
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