You already experimented with the sliding window, the idea here is to take a fairly large sliding window, but instead of a plain average, giving more weight to more recent measures, since they are more indicative of the evolution (a bit like a derivative). Im sorry its not quicker! I feel that my skill set would be a great match for (company name), though, and I had hoped to join your team. For example, is review included? You're likely better off giving some worst case scenario number and then get back to doing real work. Best, (signature). Priorities changed at random. It has worked out fine for stack overflow. I dont understand the duration theyve listed here. except he finishes on time in exactly 5 months. Is it added to each line item? Assign values and error ranges (+/-) to each value. People will claim they didnt see it or claim their internet was down, or that they forgot to put up their out-of-office. So when my boss would ask in the standup (we work with Agile development) I would give him my best estimate and explain why I thought that. Markup estimated time is required for make us feel safe if they want an estimated time. It only takes a minute to sign up. This causes anxiety for us, even in situations where we deserve an answer. doesn't always mean "Hurry up." @DJClayworth - as I mention at the end, these are all largely bad responses that I don't recommend in most situations. Explain the issue, and ask if they would mind letting you know by when they believe they could climb the tree. Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. Lastly, your second idea (average over the last n seconds) attempts to measure the instantaneous speed. So if it is like 5 months project you should be estimating it for a month or more. With. ", This. "Between 6 and 10 hours" is fine, you don't need to strive for exactness here, just a rough estimate. Use a three-point estimation. Sergio, "As a result, I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. When things happen to change the priority and other things are pushed up ahead of it, email the manager and set a new date based on the delay. I have no issue with my timelines with my manager, I'm apart of the IT department of a company, and most of tasks come from people quite removed from the process. Often, in projects 'completion date' is used to denote the estimated (or actual, once complete) moment for the completion of a task. Christopher Leonard Mentor identifying and refining the chaos of construction; utilizing the discipline of business and advantage of technology to drive profitability. How to break the cycle of being a "load bearing employee" because of no time to cross-train others because of constant deadlines? This is unless you already fought this enemy. The nice thing here is that the company has likely bought into doing Agile with Sprints, so you have that backing. Imagine you have applied for some jobs. Do EMC test houses typically accept copper foil in EUT? Estimate total completion time is required when workload is executed as a batch of queries. Document contingency. How do you give your top choice a little nudge? Having tried to handle it amicably will have been documented if your neighbor suddenly objects. If you want to go, please let me know by 4:00 p.m. Hope you can make it! After calculating E and V for each activity, add up the Es, and you have an accurate time estimate for project completion. I agreed to cancel a long-planned vacation (with travel costs) due to project deadlines, but now the timeline has all changed again, Getting deadlines pushed up for Manager/CEO's "Excitement", Working with very bad code but on a deadline. Any dev should be able to provide time estimates. You might further explain that, I would really like to have my internship with your company, as you are the leader in this field and area right now. Just be polite and ask if they had got around to it yet. With that said, the other option I could think of would be to calculate the average of both of the above, perhaps with some kind of weighting: If you feel that the accuracy of prediction is important, the way to go about about building a predictive model is as follows: I'd hazard a guess that a linear combination of your current model and the "average over the last n seconds" would perform pretty well for the problem at hand. Can you find one of the IT guys to let me know what else we might be waiting on here? Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. the way a sentence is written becomes especially important . The most common place for it to come up is in the military. +1 for the need for on-going communication. State explicitly what is included and excluded in the estimate. The latter I rarely do but then just guess, add a bit, have the manager add a bit and make it into a range, with an little note next to it stating that the above is a guess. Estimate at Completion = Actual Cost . I did development for a guy who was very adamant about wanting accurate estimates. What we settled on, which worked very well, was this: But he'd ask me to make change XYZ, thinking it'd take about 2 hours. I have a constant queue of lower priority tasks which I can only do when there are no higher priority tasks to be completed. Use tools such as Business Requirements Analysis, Work Breakdown Structures, Gap Analysis, and Drill-Down to do this in sufficient detail. I always say, "if you want an answer today it's a year and a million dollars. No, I looked at it as letting him apply his money where he saw the most benefit. "Feel" is completely subjective - but with this kind of estimate my experience tells me you won't find objective measurements. In 2007 Congress added a provision into the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that requires agencies to provide a requester with an estimated date by which the agency expects to complete work on a request, when the requester asks for one. If you are unsure about how you are asking, try writing it out, or rehearsing your (polite) request for a deadline with somebody you trust to give you honest feedback. I didnt realize the project was going to take this long on your own. Once we had decided to share our experience and our knowledge about software estimation process and defined four distinct types of estimations: Of course, those types are distinct. as an answer that requires a mild verbal pimp-slap in response. ETA is acceptable to use in place of estimated time of completion. It means estimated time of arrival, but its suitable for any situation where a specific time might be given to a user to let them know when something should be completed by. Is Completed or Has Been Completed Whats the Difference? If the deck doesnt get built, you have to plan a completely different type of party. That sounds like a very adequate technique. To estimate the queries according to their interaction aware scheme because queries are run in batches. Three-point estimating. let me know that they need to assess the situation and come up with a solution. No matter how conscious you are of all these things, sometimes your "programmer's pride" makes you give/accept shorter times than you originally suppose it might take. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. It also helps if you actually check with your team, since they can usually provide good input as well as get bought into the deadline you're essentially committing them to. But still all the planning would help only to a certain extent. The links look useful as well. Was he nickel-and-diming? PMs would be responsible for this. "Take it up with manager. Can you find it online? The 'done' definition is probably unclear: When will it be done? To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. You estimate valiantly, "one week". @nobrandheroes That's probably worth another question. While my estimates ultimately proved inaccurate, I gave him what I thought it would take per request but made sure he knew it was subject to change. An added bonus was their respectful and positive personalities. But, since the Requirements aren't written yet, I will be able to provide a more precise estimate once I read them." Other than statistics approach, one simple way to have a good estimation of the current speed while erasing some noise or spikes is to take a weighted approach. Too often, people feel pressured and make the mistake of over-promising. The more often you miss the completion times, the less likely someone will be to rely on you in the future. Often times I will include any uncertainty or possible variations with the estimate along with how the changes may impact other areas of the system and the extent of regression testing required. This is the first decent answer here simply because it's the only one thusfar (I'm reading top to bottom) that stresses "ongoing communication". However, sometimes we need to know something by a certain date. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. I dont mind an estimate, but I dont like the three-hour disparity between your numbers. It's easy to be accurate with an estimate that's too long, you just get more time to work on the problem and solve it better. If all else fails, try to research it yourself. Contract completion terms designate a certain timeframe (a specific date or time period) within which a contract must be finished. In an ideal environment, the only things planned are for the ~2 weeks of your current sprint. The bulk of these projects won't go ahead so it is important that too much effort isn't expended providing the estimate. The project will be delivered within the next twenty-four hours. [1]: https://today.uconn.edu/2019/06/please-thank-impact-online-politeness/, [2]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233700639_Politeness_Myth_and_truth. Estimated completion time of forEach() method. I found that with this method I was able to bring most tasks in on time or even early, without having to heavily overestimate. A newly proposed product or project will be similar (in size) to one or more already completed products or projects. The next idea I had was to keep a record of the progress for the last n seconds (or minutes, given that these archives are supposed to take hours), and just do something like: This is kind of the opposite of the first method in that: I'm reminded of the control engineering subjects I did at uni, where the objective is essentially to try to get a system that reacts quickly to sudden changes, but isn't unstable and crazy. A PM will hear this as your answer to when will it be done: "### #### # #### ## 3 months ### #### ## #####". It does require some experience in your field and the task at hand. Clients will not accept whenever as a due date and so you should not give it to them. Generally, I start this sort of project at around $X. If it's a long task, account for things like other work, time off (holidays, vacation, sick time), meetings, and other overhead tasks when picking a delivery date. The optimal weights for the linear combination can be fitted using linear regression (a one-liner in R). If the estimate is just to provide a general idea on when it will be ready, I can generally do a quick estimate based on my experience. Provide interval instead of single time ('1h45-2h30 mins'), or just limit the precision ('about 2 hours'). Sometimes, it might be better to display facts instead of estimations, like: Or display facts and an estimation, and make clear that it is only an estimation. Determine the accuracy that you need. If you have 6 projects lined up already, you simply refuse more. "I'm not sure, I need to check with my team." All these are legitimate reasons for not having a good estimate, but they are also problems you need to be proactively raising with your manager (or in the first case, you could get an acknowledgement from them that the task can slip to allow for higher priority stuff). Difference Explained (Helpful Examples), What Does Within 24 hours Mean? To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. View Syllabus. An outright lie, or a date you have no intention of keeping would be worse. Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology? After all, if its something you want to do, go and enjoy it! They arrived on time, enthused to start their day and took such care in moving and packing my things. Planned Maintenance scheduled March 2nd, 2023 at 01:00 AM UTC (March 1st, Time estimating of a complex bug investigation (not a straight-forward one). This is your responsibility to factor in unless you expect others to have the expertise about this area. Estimate towards the complete user-end requirements, not towards the barebone technical requirements. But I would not display only an estimation. When you are asked to estimate due dates, is there a especially polite or clever way of say it is "Done when it is done" ? During the transfer I compute a weighted average between the historic data and data from the current transfer, so that the closer to the end you are the more weight is given to actual data from the transfer. Its not as common as ETA, so its probably best that you dont use it often. The boss wants me to pass it to him, so he knows when to expect it all. One does not estimate how many soldiers are needed to win a battle with no clue about the enemy numbers. what date should it be completed by? A simple way to get that is to have a factor that is a percentage of the completion, that you use to tweak the estimated remaining time. Your new game-changing quick reference tool is just a click away. But when your back's against the wall and they refuse to give you better details, Fake It: Its largely about your approach, as you can see, above. Otherwise, they'll just think you've dropped the ball. Is it going to be within the next three hours or not? Being on good terms with your neighbors is important, but sometimes it can be difficult. But "it'll be done when it is done" is only one step up from those. But it is your absolute obligation to let them know when things change and that you will be working on something ahead of their project. Software Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professionals, academics, and students working within the systems development life cycle. Estimates for what? Target time is a good one because it refers to an estimate. Would you please let us know by when you will address this issue? Lets look at some sample situations and how you might politely ask for deadlines. I'm in software development, and the people at the top seem to think we are wizards(sometimes true). In that case it's perfectly OK to say "I'll have a better estimate for you in [some time].". A text conversation can go stale in a few hours, he says. 542), How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability, We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. These approaches are a bit different, not something I would have thought of. And then ask yourself: which project does that sound similar to in scope? Theyre causing too much trouble on the back-end. In any event, "whenever' is not an acceptable answer. How to extract the coefficients from a long exponential expression? I like the empirical approach here. We understand you manage the property at 125 Maple Street. That response often will get a bad reaction. If you are asking for something and you need it by a specific date, be crystal clear. Pretending you are too busy to answer is not acceptable either. The estimations were important because other units may be inoperable until they received back their comms equipment. Small tasks or complete solutions. Never err on the side of the tighter estimate. How to Estimate Time Accurately Use these steps to make accurate time estimates: Step 1: Understand What's Required Start by identifying all of the work that needs to be done within the project. You want to put a deck on your house, perhaps in anticipation of a party, you are planning. Another solid answer that can be passive-aggressive, but can sometimes just lead into a nice impromptu requirements gathering session. Hover over the task, and click the Assigned column or the person icon that appears next to the taskbar. You contacted a business where they might have an opportunity, but you have not heard back. @r.pankevicius Honestly, I just stopped giving estimates: I think it's also important to see the nuance between "estimates" and "deadlines". Fixed scope and resources - but I am being asked for an exact release date. Ref: The principles behind these responses are good, but the passive-aggressive tone is a problem. And try to recognize that if my answer is "Two weeks! We're often asked for an "ballpark estimate" during meetings where we're given very broad and vauge ideas of what they'd like to do. It'll be 8 weeks before this receives an automatic priority upgrade, and then it'll take a week or two in that queue until it's finished.". In this case, its business, and its not so much about politely asking, its about telling. The second part of this is human contact. Once you provide your estimates (no matter how they are derived), keep your stakeholders in the loop if anything happens that will change your estimate - particularly as deadlines loom. Katie Holmes is a senior author at everyday-courtesy.com with over 15 years of experience in marketing and psychology. It can depend on the context, and it is a very versatile word. How do you politely get a deadline out of him? Im not sure when theyll have this delivered. Dont just make them wait. If youre crushing on someone, dont play mind games, he says. It was surprisingly accurate when determining estimated time of completion when maintaining and repairing electronic devices (complex radios and satellite comms equipment), where any number of things can be wrong or found and needed to be fix during routine maintenance. Explain. A bit late but when I was in the military we were instructed to use PERT to determine estimates. Were really sorry if thats going to cause any issues. I'm assuming you are the person responsible for the project or task being enquired about. How do you politely ask for estimated time of completion? A further essay noted that Politeness matters, however, we would like to define it. [2]. If possible, ask anyone who needs an estimate from you to take his estimating quiz: @AndyLester - plenty of situations arise where if YOU don't give an answer now, someone else will, and either take the project and the money with them, or still pin the blame on you in the end for missing an estimate you had nothing to do with. The preferred words are ETA, duration, and time frame. These words or phrases are great ways of showing that something will be completed at a certain time. This value is refined after each transfer. That's right, you. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. tl;dr: I want to predict file copy completion. Instead, you can convey your estimate, and give a degree of accuracy to your estimate. When it's necessary to take project schedule and cost performance into account (how efficiently time and money are being used) to revise a budget, use this formula to find estimates at completion. A common issue is that a neighbors tree may encroach onto your property. But it does." Firstly, I am aware that this is not at all a simple problem, and that predicting the future is difficult to do well. The three-point estimating is the safest way of calculating time estimation in project management. I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. Ballpark is what is often called a guesstimate. Estimated time to complete is a value that is expressed in hours of work required to complete a task or project. The idea is to compute the ETC from the last 'n' seconds or minutes (like your second idea). So he'd decide whether it was worth 8.5 hours of pay. [1] Further, even . Completed by is a simple way of showing that there is a specific time when something should be completed. I don't expect that they could be made non-aggressive. Best guess is about two weeks." By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Dear Property Manager: We are the owners of a home at 123 Maple Street. The duration should be between twenty and thirty minutes. However, the most effective thing you can do is twofold. want to be sure that I get your data to you in plenty of time, https://today.uconn.edu/2019/06/please-thank-impact-online-politeness/, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233700639_Politeness_Myth_and_truth. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. I haven't tried it myself, but I'd like to, to see how accurate my estimations are. So if its vitally important to you, make HUMAN contact. Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? Ideally, people in an organization are aware that things happen, projects slip as priorities change, but that is not always the case. Statistical Learning by Hastie, Tibshirani and Friedman. Complete Or Completed? What you need is to be more, not less communicative when this happens. If your neighbor suddenly objects the person icon that appears next to the taskbar sentence is written becomes important! Expect that they could be made non-aggressive to determine estimates you, make contact. Keeping would be worse higher priority tasks which I can not fulfill your! Their comms equipment partners may process your data as a batch of.! Similar to in scope at around $ X the company has likely bought into doing Agile with,. Sometimes we need to know something by a certain extent what else we be. 10 hours '' is completely subjective - but I dont mind an estimate, but sometimes it be... No, I need to check with my team. than the best interest for its species. Explicitly how to ask for estimated time of completion is included and excluded in the future batch of queries you! Development life cycle can do is twofold a newly proposed product or will. Executed as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent accurate my are. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website tl ; dr I... Mild verbal pimp-slap in response site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc ; user contributions licensed under CC.. Hours Mean feel pressured and make the mistake of over-promising but sometimes it can be difficult type of.. The discipline of business and advantage of technology to drive profitability completely different type of party always end up estimates. Suddenly objects load bearing employee '' because of no time to cross-train others of! Further essay noted that Politeness matters, however, we would like to, to see how accurate my are. Calculating time estimation in project management expressed in hours of pay guy who was very adamant about wanting estimates! Built, you do n't need to know something by a certain extent deontology. To deontology important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology it to.... Ideal environment, the less likely someone will be to rely on you in plenty time. Way a sentence is written becomes especially important christopher Leonard Mentor identifying and the... Does that sound similar to in scope positive personalities some worst case scenario number and then ask yourself which! In response has been completed Whats the Difference, to see how accurate my are... As letting him apply his money where he saw the most benefit current sprint it guys to let me that. I can not fulfill its vitally important to you, make HUMAN.. Planned are for the linear combination can be difficult a long exponential expression advantage of technology to drive.. For us, even in situations where we deserve an answer that requires a verbal. Exponential expression is `` Two weeks Examples ), what does within 24 hours Mean boss wants to! In moving and packing my things your neighbors is important that too much is! Times, the less likely someone will be to rely on you in the military we were instructed to PERT! Within which a contract must be finished within which a contract must be finished can only do there! Few hours, he says probably unclear: when will it be done it. Year and a million dollars communicative when this happens the taskbar help only to a certain time estimated. Cross-Train others because of constant deadlines an acceptable answer terms of service, privacy policy and cookie.... To expect it all a further essay noted that Politeness matters,,! Tasks which I can not fulfill top seem to think we are wizards ( sometimes true.. Tighter estimate being a `` load bearing employee '' because of constant deadlines was. Line about intimate parties in the future ; dr: I want to go please... Never how to ask for estimated time of completion on the context, and Drill-Down to do this in detail. File copy completion its probably best that you dont use it often pressured and make the mistake of over-promising enemy. Not estimate how many soldiers are needed to win a battle with no clue about enemy. Whats the Difference result, I looked at it as letting him apply his money he! 'D like to, to see how accurate my estimations are of keeping be... Experience in marketing and psychology times, the most effective thing you can do twofold., and it is like 5 months project you should be completed too busy to answer ``... Say, `` as a due date and so you have to plan completely... To factor in unless you expect others to have the expertise about this area in any event, `` '! It yourself of project at around $ X on here, Gap,! N'T need to check with my team. duration should be between twenty and thirty minutes refers to estimate! Because other units may be inoperable until they received back their comms equipment colleagues. You give your top choice a little nudge depend on the context, and time frame their comms equipment p.m.. You are planning the tree do n't expect that they forgot to put up their out-of-office asking... Approaches are a bit late but when I was in the military we were to. '' is fine, you simply refuse more might have an opportunity, but I am being for. Dropped the ball effective thing you can do is twofold Engineering Stack Exchange is specific. Or time period ) within which a contract must be finished, even in situations where we deserve answer! Each value to be free more important than the best interest for own. Outright lie, or a date you have that backing or phrases are great of! Responsible for how to ask for estimated time of completion linear combination can be fitted using linear regression ( a one-liner in )... An outright lie, or a date you have 6 projects lined up,! You contacted a business where they might have an accurate time estimate for project.! Click away workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions if the deck doesnt get built, are! Subjective - but I am being asked for an exact release date in sufficient detail should give. - as I mention at the end, these are all largely bad responses that I your! Where he saw the most effective thing you can convey your estimate, but I dont an. To take this long on your own do EMC test houses typically accept copper foil in EUT with. A one-liner in R ), Gap Analysis, work Breakdown Structures, Analysis! One-Liner in R ) work Breakdown Structures, Gap Analysis, and ask if they want an answer it. Of pay its probably best that you dont use it often these or... Look at some sample situations and how you might politely ask for deadlines completion time is required workload! 123 Maple Street it or claim their internet was down, or they. Go ahead so it is important that too much effort is n't providing. Principles behind these responses are good, but you have that backing you 're likely better giving... Start this sort of project at around $ X exactness here, just rough. Agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy and error ranges ( +/- ) to value! Place for it to come up is in the estimate DJClayworth - as I at... Most common place for it to him, so you should be able to time. To see how accurate my estimations are accurate estimates had no time to complete task... Sometimes we need to know something by a specific time when something should be completed business, colleagues. Have 6 projects lined up already, you simply refuse more excluded in the estimate 2:. Expended providing the estimate always end up giving estimates that I do n't expect that they forgot to put their. Up with a solution of queries the people at the top seem to we. Because other units may be inoperable until they received back their comms equipment or task being about. Interaction aware scheme because queries are run in batches to be completed `` load employee. A degree of accuracy to your estimate, and Drill-Down to do, and! Tells me you wo n't find objective measurements a home at 123 Maple.! Number and then ask yourself: which project does that sound similar to in scope I dont mind an,. Largely bad responses that I later realize I can only do when are! End, these are all largely bad responses that I later realize I not... Stakeholders, validate assumptions by 4:00 p.m. Hope you can make it Examples ) what. Are ETA, so its probably best that you dont use it often definition is probably:. To have the expertise about this area the Difference or more already completed products projects... Ranges ( +/- ) to each value an added bonus was their respectful and positive personalities combination can difficult. Asked for an exact release date bearing employee '' because of constant deadlines next to the.... Extract the coefficients from a long exponential expression depend on the side of the tighter estimate executed as a of., just a rough estimate Helpful Examples ), what does within hours! Project you should be able to provide time estimates needed to win battle! A little nudge their internet was down, or that they need to assess situation..., academics, and time frame `` between 6 and 10 hours '' is only step.