A client asked me to ‘Quote a budget and timeline for completely ‘automating testing’ while giving no context of the product.

I refused to work with them (obviously), here’s why:

Even if disregard the ‘automating testing’ ask, which is a BIG ask..

Getting a budget and time estimation of a complete project might be a common ask before any project sign off.

But I consider this the biggest anti pattern to agile.

Decades of practical experience has showed us we are horrible at estimating.

On the other hand I understand we need to budget and calculate what return we might get.

What might be more practical is to have a ball park range for budget and work we can deliver in first three months.

You can extrapolate and calculate the total estimated cost and use for long term budget planning, but remember it’s always going to be wrong.

We get so hung up with the detailed plans & good old

gantt charts (which were invented in WWI) and forget the ground reality.

#QsDaily #projectestimation #agile