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Discussion on: Why developers are SO sh*t at estimating!

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bootcode profile image
Robin Palotai

We also estimate the happy-path, solving if everything goes smooth. When was the last time you said "this should take 5 minutes" and there you are 2 hours later, installing drivers and reading arcane config syntax..

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lukegarrigan profile image
Luke Garrigan

Yeah thatโ€™s so true, Iโ€™ll be honest, it happens far too often in my case ๐Ÿ˜‚

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bootcode profile image
Robin Palotai

Let's break it down a bit. The process looks like this:

  1. Oh, this looks exactly what I want, and sounds easy.
  2. Start reading docs or installing package. At this point we are hooked, and likely to go on.
  3. First hurdle comes, but now we have invested. Why leave now, success is so near. Like when waiting for bus - I won't leave now, I have waited for long, it surely will arrive soon.

The first sign of barrier should make us stop and think. When we branch out to 3 Chrome tabs, following how to configure various deps. Or get a result from a call that is not expected according to the docs.

I'm not saying we should throw up the white flag, but we have to ask ourself: This seems rather 4 hours instead the 10 minutes I hoped. Is it worth the investment, or should I stop now?