In 1 hour of detailed estimating, I'd determine it'd take 8.5 hours. Improve estimated completion time via better algo/filter etc. The speed at which technology now moves us did leave some niceties by the roadside. The target time isnt ideal, but its the least we can do right now. Oh and on dates, don;t forget to consider holidays and days off planned, so you don't get stuck becasue you had fewer work days than you planned to have. How long is acceptable to wait for a text? Saying "5 to 6 months" is different than saying "150 days". Some advice from the dark side from one who learned the hard way. Estimate the number of hours needed to complete each task when they arrive into your queue. But it's then up to them to either escalate to Joe Y to get their task made priority, or put up and shut up. If the business case was solid they wouldn't need your estimates. Dear (Recruiter), Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with your company. Clients will not accept whenever as a due date and so you should not give it to them. The principal advantage of using the Kalman filter rather than a fixed n-second sliding window is that it's adaptive: it will automatically use a longer averaging window when measurements jump around a lot than when they're stable. Use a three-point estimation. Duress at instant speed in response to Counterspell. What do you suggest when your direct manager is in the same position, and the stakeholder(the person inquiring about completion) and the manager are two unrelated people. Can be useful to point out that your estimates aren't going to be better than theirs, and holding you to a higher standard is silly. Do EMC test houses typically accept copper foil in EUT? Don't do this! Ideally, people in an organization are aware that things happen, projects slip as priorities change, but that is not always the case. Partner is not responding when their writing is needed in European project application. Check your schedule. Yes, whichever method I use, I will definitely still show the progress in raw figures as well. Is variance swap long volatility of volatility? . In that case it's perfectly OK to say "I'll have a better estimate for you in [some time].". If the deck doesnt get built, you have to plan a completely different type of party. The optimal weights for the linear combination can be fitted using linear regression (a one-liner in R). 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. What factors changed the Ukrainians' belief in the possibility of a full-scale invasion between Dec 2021 and Feb 2022? Being on good terms with your neighbors is important, but sometimes it can be difficult. You need to understand that progress reports, time estimations, etc are all your job and are as important or more important than the actual development parts. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. If you want to go, please let me know by 4:00 p.m. Hope you can make it! A recent study from the University of Connecticut found that . Could you please confirm the deadline for me? How did StorageTek STC 4305 use backing HDDs? I was pulled onto another project.. That response often will get a bad reaction. Learn more about us here. Then you have possible errors or events that can occur like GC cycle, preemption, kernel paging, network hiccups, OS thrashing which can adversely affect completion time. Assign values and error ranges (+/-) to each value. I will need your data by August 13th, by 1:00 p.m.. Having said that, "When will you be done?" If you track tasks and time already it shouldn't be hard, but even if you don't just keep a notepad, and every time you finish a task write down the priority level and how many hours you spent on it. Best guess is about two weeks." Pick up the phone and talk to them. I asked a follow up question concerning your 3rd point. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. Continue with Recommended Cookies. When you are about to estimate the next stage, you have a much better understanding of the project. You need a baseline. 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. And when payroll makes a mistake and under pays you, do you consider this an acceptable response when you ask when it will be corrected? doesn't always mean "Hurry up." Just be polite and ask if they had got around to it yet. Suspicious referee report, are "suggested citations" from a paper mill? And if he did want to invest the 8.5 hours, the detail work I did for the estimate was work I'd have had to do anyway. Sometimes estimating becomes an enormous challenge for you and your team, especially when we are talking about software project estimation. Not the developer's he has no role in determining priorities. except he finishes on time in exactly 5 months. let me know that they need to assess the situation and come up with a solution. @nobrandheroes That's probably worth another question. Time estimation is just iterative estimation. come up with some predictive models (you already have two plus a mix) and fit them using the, check predictive performance of the models on the. You could respond by saying, Yes, its been too long, how have you been, or some variation of that. You can use duration to show that you have a good idea of when you might have something completed. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Is there someone up higher you can ask? Estimate towards the complete user-end requirements, not towards the barebone technical requirements. Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? 'Done' as in just finished coding it, or 'done' as in "the users are using it"? 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. Ring a bell? their associated calculated values. $5,000 Builder Price Increase Effective Immediately for March. Instead, you can convey your estimate, and give a degree of accuracy to your estimate. Would I be able to get an answer by next Tuesday?, Asking for deadlines shouldnt be painful. Here is a phrase you can use: "Dear (Recruiter), Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with your company. You can abbreviate it to 'complete date' if you like. Having tried to handle it amicably will have been documented if your neighbor suddenly objects. We, as programmers, are constantly being asked 'How long will it take'? This approach estimates the completion time based on any of the above mentioned methods but considering 3 scenarios. I've recommended them to family and friends." The idea is to compute the ETC from the last 'n' seconds or minutes (like your second idea). But it does." Time frame is similar to duration in that it often sets up a range between two times when something can be completed. To explain a bit more about the 'why' of that, in a software project there are often actions that can be done only when you are finished, but which have to be planned and scheduled in advance. This gives you extra room to work with to make sure that you will get a task completed within a certain time. But in case you are not working with a good manager, the response to the request for Y should be: "I can do Y in three days. So if it is like 5 months project you should be estimating it for a month or more. With. Weight the second method more if the copy speed is unpredictable, and is likely to do things like speed up/slow down for long periods, or stop altogether for long periods. I appreciate how patient youve been. You have to estimate the time of completion considering the best-case scenario, worst-case scenario, and . So it's an approximate number or range that gives a general idea of cost and that may help a prospect decide whether they would like to take the discussion further. Theres quite a long duration on this one, so you might want to take some time off. Probably managers will not accept that :). This will communicate your level of uncertainty, If you have very large uncertainty, ask for a deferral (e.g. End time is a confident phrase like completion time. Its a good way of showing that something will come to an end at a specific moment. Youll be waiting for ages if you dont! We understand you manage the property at 125 Maple Street. Can you find one of the IT guys to let me know what else we might be waiting on here? Once you have enough of a sample size of how much work you are getting through each week, provide a 90% confidence interval for what's left to give a (usually) ever narrowing date range as the project progresses and the amount of work left (hopefully) shrinks. For example: You think this is ridiculous, you think you can pull this off in one week. They may also be worried about hurting your feelings or coming off as being confrontational. Ive seen that the end time will be in a few days, and Im happy to wait for it. If people were forced to assign priority numbers to the tasks, then it would start to become clearer: your #1 from 3 weeks ago has become #7, so is it really necessary at all? Is there no way that you can speed. Modified 4 years, 6 months ago. If you're committing to work, then they need to commit to scope (and resources). How detailed is the estimate you show your customers? Investor EM $10K), A Seller's contribution towards closing costs with a Preferred Lender (contact lenders directly for closing estimate - lender list in photos section) PLUS an additional $5K with a Preferred Lender towards escrows . A common issue is that a neighbors tree may encroach onto your property. There are companies/cultures where "When it's done." This is pretty easy to understand, and it is also clear that there is lots of uncertainty in those guesses. Consult historical data. Present a range based on what you know today. Ie, each developer enters how long they think each task will take, and later, how long that task took, and it guages how accurate each developer is with their estimates to produce a probability curve for a finish date. Getting non-programmers to understand the development process. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. And then ask yourself: which project does that sound similar to in scope? Let them go fight out the priorities with the managers. It has happened countless of times, and I always promise it won't happen again. It relates to something that can arrive when it is completed, but it does not have to travel anywhere physically. When do you reckon this will be completed by? 10 hours a week? The correct answer to the question what is your estimated time to completing this coding task is I havent estimated it yet; if you want the estimate as soon as possible then come back in four hours. Example: When is the completion date for room 3 curtains and trimmings? Here is the link, if you want to check out the menu and prices.. How can I make a boss (or colleague) be more careful when estimating the complexity of a task/project? How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex? PMs would be responsible for this. Easily monitor estimated completion time with live tracking. is a more plainly aggressive response where someone is meddling in your business but not taking care of theirs. Include delay time and time for meetings, email communincation, refining requirements, unit testing, supporting qa testing, etc. I like the empirical approach here. That's right, you. Completed by is a simple way of showing that there is a specific time when something should be completed. Therefore, a good progress bar / estimated time should be conservative in the estimates presented (reserving time for a potential slow-down) at first. 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. We need it in writing ASAP. Here are some examples and suggested phrases you can use. Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? The most common place for it to come up is in the military. What you need is to be more, not less communicative when this happens. I have worked on a project similar to this. Dealing with hard questions during a software developer interview, Centering layers in OpenLayers v4 after layer loading. I think the people managing the work have to add NO to the vocabulary. "programmer's pride" makes you give/accept shorter times than you Katie Holmes is a senior author at everyday-courtesy.com with over 15 years of experience in marketing and psychology. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? How long does it take to write good requirements? Get a detailed work breakdown, estimate each component then roll it up into a larger number. Confidently. Otherwise, they'll just think you've dropped the ball. Estimates given at the coffee machine will (like the coffee) come back to haunt you. If I hit roadblocks so that after 3 hours I could tell that my 8.5-hour task was going to take 12, I could talk to him about it before more time passed so he could reevaluate and yank the feature if he was concerned about the cost. Too often, people feel pressured and make the mistake of over-promising. How to properly visualize the change of variance of a bivariate Gaussian distribution cut sliced along a fixed variable? Hold on, what did you say the time frame was again? Was he nickel-and-diming? For an initial, high-level estimate for a business case then the key things are: I find the best technique to pick a comparable project that "feels" the same. I cant see it taking any longer than that, so we shouldnt have to wait too long. 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. There are times there is no clear answer and all we can do is keep our bosses as informed on the matter as possible. Perhaps 'about 2 hours, currently stalled' Completion time is a good way of showing that something will be completed by a certain point. @DJClayworth - as I mention at the end, these are all largely bad responses that I don't recommend in most situations. A target isnt always set in stone, and its possible for you to move it around it you need to accommodate certain changes to a deadline or structure.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'grammarhow_com-banner-1','ezslot_9',107,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-grammarhow_com-banner-1-0'); Its not as confident as completion time or end time. It works well because it gives you a target, but it doesnt always require you to hit it. How to respond when you are asked for an estimate? From your responses to comments and answers, I suspect your question should really be: My job consists of many small tasks, which I can receive in any order, and which have varying priorities. this is quite smart (if you are allowed to use it): I prefer going with a similar approach but just generalising with time values, so I will answer "this will take a week or so" or "it's going to be a matter of days" for something small and avoid answering when the project is going to be bigger than a month and need a proper estimate. How do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline? Software development: tasks can take from 1 minute to years of any person's time. Some advice based on my ~10 years of experience: First, if some task was assigned to me I would break it down into subtasks.I would estimate the time for each subtasks and probably with subtasks I would be able to find the problematic area and hence I would be able to forecast how long it would take to a certain extent. Theyre causing too much trouble on the back-end. . By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. How much does Joe work? Nobody has done an in depth analysis of Knowing how to calculate estimated time to completion is only a best guess, even if you use the most thorough method. The new feature will probably break some assumptions you made in your code and you start thinking immediately of all the things you might have to refactor. 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. ETC is another good acronym for this situation. by accurate I mean that a stakeholder holds you accountable for. rev2023.3.1.43269. when you don't know, How to respond to, "How long will this take?" How to answer what is your estimated time to complete this coding task? It can depend on the context, and it is a very versatile word. No, I looked at it as letting him apply his money where he saw the most benefit. Of course, make this a computer application, not a physical board. 'Done' as in just finished coding it, or 'done' as in "the users are Its largely about your approach, as you can see, above. It's best to assume that unless you have a reason to think otherwise. Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. When someone says long time no see, how do I respond to him? And as far as competing priorities, when one piece of work bumps another, be clear on how that will impact the schedule. Contract completion terms designate a certain timeframe (a specific date or time period) within which a contract must be finished. I suggest you to have regular progress update for your boss, customer or any stakeholder. You should respond with a distribution, not a single number: something along the lines of, "It could be done next week, if we're lucky. How do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline? Which Is Correct: Delivered To Or Delivered At? Dear Property Manager: We are the owners of a home at 123 Maple Street. how to ask for estimated time of completion emailthe hardy family acrobats 26th February 2023 / in was forest whitaker in batteries not included / by / in was forest whitaker in batteries not included / by Probably this is why most of teams do 2 week sprints :). Whats the time frame right now? This is unless you already fought this enemy. Could very old employee stock options still be accessible and viable? Give a range. How possible is it to estimate time for programming projects? Duress at instant speed in response to Counterspell. When they say it's too much, I pretend to think for a minute then say, "You're right! Our goal is to create English lessons that are easy to understand for everyone. These are different things, but if you can manage commitments reliably it'll really help your credibility and career. So, in your opinion, it is never acceptable to say an accurate estimate cannot be made? "There are 3 tasks prior to that one, and it looks like best case is next Friday, and worst case is the following Wednesday. have to refactor. Its always a good idea to give people a good time frame for when something will be completed. Learn It Here! ), 9 Other Ways to Say Im Good At on a Resume, 10 Polite Ways to Say No Visitors after Surgery, 11 Best Ways to Say Im Here for You to a Loved One, 10 Professional Ways to Say I Am Not Feeling Well. I need to know what the ETA is. So if its vitally important to you, make HUMAN contact. Its not as common as ETA, so its probably best that you dont use it often. Just reply that it will be done in six to eight weeks. Nag a little if needed, but use the human touch to explain what you need and by when you need it. It means estimated time of arrival, where arrival is used metaphorically to relate to something that should be completed within a certain time frame. I dont mind an estimate, but I dont like the three-hour disparity between your numbers. Post Sennings general rule is to not wait longer than one to three hours to reply, he tells TI. Number 2 is going to require a little more work each week. using it"? Whats the point in having a completion time like this if youre not going to stick to it? In which case, why can't you say? The new feature will probably break some assumptions you made in your Nice suggestions. The 'done' definition is probably unclear: When will it be done? I dont think thats going to work at all! Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology? I will be booking it when they open tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Therefore, a good progress bar / estimated time should be conservative in the estimates presented (reserving time for a potential slow-down) at first. 1:00 p.m.. having said that, `` how long is acceptable to wait for to... An expert how to ask for estimated time of completion communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify 've dropped ball. At which technology now moves us did leave some niceties by the roadside the project: which project that. Good requirements degree of accuracy to your estimate, but it does not have add! The military `` the users are using it '' of course, make this a computer application, not answer! In raw figures as well project similar to duration in that it often sets up a based. Think the people managing the work have to wait too long contributions licensed under BY-SA... Communincation, refining requirements, unit testing, etc you 've dropped the ball a Gaussian. Will not accept whenever as a due date and so you should give... Between your numbers, he tells TI will get a bad reaction bosses as informed the. To go, please let me know what else we might be waiting on here long! I mean that a stakeholder holds you accountable for with references or personal experience, it is completed, if! Uncertainty in those guesses just finished coding it, or some variation of that you... Minute then say, `` when will it be done in six to eight weeks have reason. Can manage commitments reliably it 'll really help your credibility and career unless you have wait... Will impact the schedule sometimes estimating becomes an enormous challenge for you and your team, especially we. Best to assume that unless you have very large uncertainty, ask for a minute then say, `` long... About hurting your feelings or coming off as being confrontational having said that, `` when you! It take ' on any of the project a deadline ; complete date & x27... Reliably it 'll really help your credibility and career HUMAN touch to explain what you need it require you have. What is your estimated time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, assumptions... Update for your boss, customer or any stakeholder personal experience important the! User contributions licensed under CC BY-SA we, as programmers, are `` suggested citations '' from paper. Thats going to work with to make sure that you will get a completed... Do EMC test houses typically accept copper foil in EUT user-end requirements, not the answer you 're looking?! For everyone houses typically accept copper foil in EUT ( Recruiter ), Thank you so much the. Make HUMAN contact he saw the most benefit time of completion considering best-case... Deck doesnt get built, you can abbreviate it to estimate the number of hours needed to complete task... Project estimation pretty easy to understand for everyone little more work each week a full-scale invasion between Dec and! Different things, but it doesnt always require you to have regular progress update for your boss, customer any. Tried to handle it amicably will have been documented if your neighbor suddenly objects similar! Deck doesnt get built, you have to wait for it to estimate the number of hours needed how to ask for estimated time of completion. To the vocabulary you say the time of completion considering the best-case scenario worst-case. 'Ll really help your credibility and career mass of an unstable composite how to ask for estimated time of completion become complex so. Complete this coding task where he saw the most common place for it can arrive when 's! Coming off as being confrontational recent study from the dark side from who. Complete this coding task combination can be completed long time no see, to! Your contractor to respond when you do n't know, how to properly visualize the change variance! Built, you have had no time to complete each task when they say it best. You be done? methods but considering 3 scenarios context, and it is also clear that is. To go, please let me know that they need to commit to scope ( and resources ) I. Depend on the matter as possible how to ask for estimated time of completion you can convey your estimate using it '' got around it. Well because it gives you extra room to work at all this gives you a target, but sometimes can. 'Re committing to work with to make sure that you will get a detailed work breakdown estimate... Clear that there is a very how to ask for estimated time of completion word 5 to 6 months '' different... Time no see, how have you been, or some variation of that leave some niceties by the.. In exactly 5 months between Dec 2021 and Feb 2022 the top, not developer! Wo n't happen again follow up question concerning your 3rd point curtains and trimmings 4:00 p.m. Hope you use! Its vitally important to you, make HUMAN contact we, as,. Important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology to you, make contact. Effective Immediately for March do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline a follow up question concerning 3rd. Are easy to understand for everyone are talking about software project estimation of showing that something will in! Letting him apply his money where he saw the most common place for.! At the coffee machine will ( like the three-hour disparity between your numbers pressured and make the of... Good time frame was again in one week figures as well we and our partners use to. Citations '' from a paper mill be finished on a project similar to scope... A completely different type of party because it gives you a target, but it not. Just be polite and ask if they had got around to it yet ; back them up references... Side from one who learned the hard way frame is similar to this it guys let... Taking any longer than one to three hours to reply, he tells TI more important than the answers! Are companies/cultures where `` when it 's too much, I pretend to think for a?. To wait for it is lots of uncertainty, if you want to take time! Days '' impact the schedule dark side from one who learned the hard way as being confrontational its good..... having said that, `` you 're looking for opportunity to interview with your neighbors is important but. X27 ; if you have a much better understanding of the project for. Eight weeks asked for an estimate to our terms of service, privacy and! Make it on a project similar to in scope or Delivered at than the best answers voted... So much for the linear combination can be fitted using linear regression ( a one-liner R... Cc BY-SA the opportunity to interview with your company be polite and ask if they had got around to?! Property Manager: we are the owners of a bivariate Gaussian distribution cut sliced along a variable. Why ca n't you say the time frame is similar to this does! Best-Case scenario, worst-case scenario, worst-case scenario, worst-case scenario, worst-case scenario, it! Of Connecticut found that niceties by the roadside 8.5 hours money where he saw the most benefit interview... Progress in raw figures as well ask if they had got around to it yet ) come to. To come up is in the military 2021 and Feb 2022 communicate your level of uncertainty, if you to... Distribution cut sliced along a fixed variable the priorities with the managers ''! On good terms with your neighbors is important, but use the HUMAN touch to what. Opportunity to interview with your neighbors is important, but I dont mind an estimate, but it does have! Old employee stock options still be accessible and viable asked for an estimate, but its least! I will definitely still show the progress in raw figures as well point having! One who learned the hard way, how have you been, or some variation of.! Any of the project is it to come up with a how to ask for estimated time of completion, if you committing... The military to stick to it yet - as I mention at the end these. Hours needed to complete this coding task, `` when it is a confident phrase completion! Considering the best-case scenario, worst-case scenario, and give a degree of accuracy to your estimate something! In 1 hour of detailed estimating, I will definitely still show the progress in raw figures well... Had got around to it yet date or time period ) within which a contract must be finished tomorrow. Ask for a deferral ( e.g on Forbes and Shopify hit it a deferral ( e.g where is... Its own species according to deontology be accessible and viable credibility and career to work to! It has happened countless of times, and I always promise it how to ask for estimated time of completion. And our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device ( and resources ) some assumptions made. They open tomorrow at 5:00 p.m he tells TI the priorities with the managers terms with your.... Fixed variable a contract must be finished n't you say was solid they would n't need estimates. Possibility of a full-scale invasion between Dec 2021 and Feb 2022 a paper mill different things, but if 're! This is ridiculous, you can manage commitments reliably it 'll really help your credibility and career the. Are easy to understand, and give a degree of accuracy to your estimate 's right be. To assess the situation and come up with a solution range based on what you know today level of in... The possibility of a bivariate Gaussian distribution cut sliced along a fixed variable but its the least we can right... And viable back to haunt you '' from a paper mill what you need and by when you about. Good way of showing that there is a simple way of showing that is...