Lastly, your second idea (average over the last n seconds) attempts to measure the instantaneous speed. An estimate is not a commitment, so a minor error shouldn't be too problematic. Tell them that they can talk to the manager if they disagree with the current priorities. Learn more about us here. How do you give your top choice a little nudge? Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. How do you estimate time required for assigned task? That sounds like a very adequate technique. It's okay you think, you'll work over 100+ hours a week, unpaid overtime. Present a range based on what you know today. Would you please let us know by when you will address this issue? noise (random variations) and other inaccuracies, and produce values This is the best answer, imho. rev2023.3.1.43269. Ring a bell? - adam. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. Hold on, what did you say the time frame was again? When do you reckon this will be completed by? Wie fragt man in einer E-Mail nach Kontaktdaten? To calculate variance, with V being variance, use this equation: V=[(P - O)/ 6]^2. You may have to let them know there are other projects/tasks that create a contingency you can't control that will affect when you can even start to look at the problem. As we mentioned, estimated completion time refers to the time a service request is expected to be finished. For various reasons (fire safety, pest invasion, or safety for your children), you would like them to climb their tree. When asked to estimate done dates, that's usually not what the asker wants to hear. . Include delay time and time for meetings, email communincation, refining requirements, unit testing, supporting qa testing, etc. The trick is to be non-confrontational and ask very politely for the deadline to be given. or clever way of say it is "Done when it is done" ? I imagine it ultimately comes down to company culture, or the disposition of those who you are working with. Do you think thats going to be enough time to get everything together? As a rule, clients need a ballpark figure at the beginning of the project. No correct estimate until it ends Progress Report Even a double estimated time would not make your task complete on 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. let me know that they need to assess the situation and come up with a solution. No information, "It'll be done when it's done" is worse than unwelcome information, "Higher priority tasks are swamping us. There are occasions in life both business and social when you need a deadline. Estimate at Completion = Actual Cost . An outright lie, or a date you have no intention of keeping would be worse. Speed. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. 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. doesn't always mean "Hurry up." Why does Jesus turn to the Father to forgive in Luke 23:34? Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. @ThomasOwens I'd never use a shooting-from-the-hip estimate for a contract but I do use those estimates before the contract stage. When asked about a completion date, what is the best way to say "it will be done when it is done"? The database administrators often require to how much longer perceive time for business intelligence workloads will take to . I'm stressed by having software deadlines imposed on me without my involvement. Theyre causing too much trouble on the back-end. Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? ETC means estimated time of completion, so its valid to use whenever you want to show that something should be completed by a specific time. This is pretty easy to understand, and it is also clear that there is lots of uncertainty in those guesses. 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. You need to be prepared for the question "what would you need in order to make an estimate", as that needs to be taken seriously. have to refactor. $5,000 Builder Price Increase Effective Immediately for March. If nothing else, make sure you document your attempts to find out when things are needed. I suggest you to have regular progress update for your boss, customer or any stakeholder. Do you need extra help? Lets look at some sample situations and how you might politely ask for deadlines. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. Nobody has done an in depth analysis of all the implications. A more robust technique for this might be to use the Kalman filter, whose purpose is exactly this: Its purpose is to use measurements observed over time, containing Is the only way to say, "I can't say right now, check with me at [given time]" ? Sometimes estimating becomes an enormous challenge for you and your team, especially when we are talking about software project estimation. 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). Pick up the phone and talk to them. Just reply that it will be done in six to eight weeks. How did StorageTek STC 4305 use backing HDDs? If the baseline isn't stable the estimate is meaningless. Because I have been on the job hunt, I believe I will soon have an offer. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Not the answer you're looking for? their associated calculated values. When you are asked to estimate due dates, is there a especially polite When you are about to estimate the next stage, you have a much better understanding of the project. Partner is not responding when their writing is needed in European project application. Imho, bad implementations of ETC are wildly overused, which allows us to have a good laugh. Thanks for contributing an answer to Stack Overflow! 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. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. make a forecast on how much time it will take you to accomplish a task; use this forecast in your planning; add enough extra time for safety; measure the time it actually takes to accomplish the task; document the hours spent on a task in your journal; compare forecast and actual time after finishing the task; learn from this comparison; Or is there none? This won't involve a change to your process/queue/prioritization - just a little extra work in time tracking of each task. As a result, I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. explain your reasoning for the urgency and maybe they will understand your side and why you need it done in such a timely manner. Perhaps 'about 2 hours, currently stalled' This is an introductory course on the key concepts of planning and executing projects. Could you please confirm the deadline for me? Seriously. Then provide a wide range. A model might be a mental model, diagrams, or existing data records. 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. This gives you extra room to work with to make sure that you will get a task completed within a certain time. 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? Determine the accuracy that you need. That said, be careful not to estimate yourself into a hole. (The restaurant) requires a reservation. It has happened countless of times, and I always promise it won't happen again. Does Cast a Spell make you a spellcaster? You think it might be next week but he is habitually vague about remembering when what is due. The requirements are unclear. Having been on the receiving end of a developer saying "it will be done when it is done", I assure you it is a major problem. This is kind of confusing to show in a GUI, but okay to show in a command line app. There are a lot of tactics for creating them, all based on getting good requirements first. Never err on the side of the tighter estimate. Duress at instant speed in response to Counterspell. Would I be able to get an answer by next Tuesday?, Asking for deadlines shouldnt be painful. being polite . And you know, the situation is almost always like this: Many of these are organizational or cultural issues that are not simple and easy to solve, but in the end the reality is that you are being asked for an estimate and they expect you to give a reasonable answer. I have several projects going so want to be sure that I get your data to you in plenty of time.. I cant see it taking any longer than that, so we shouldnt have to wait too long. At the moment, I'm using a fairly naive formula that I came up with myself: (ETC stands for Estimated Time of Completion). For example: 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. Your new game-changing quick reference tool is just a click away. From this perspective, the answer is obvious - you need to do better task tracking and management. In the section, the authors recommend the following process: Software estimation is the most difficult single task in software engineering- a close second being requirements elicitation. Christopher Leonard Mentor identifying and refining the chaos of construction; utilizing the discipline of business and advantage of technology to drive profitability. (Before or After? The estimate is made after scouting. 'Done' as in just finished coding it, or 'done' as in "the users are using it"? It could take a few hours, days, weeks. A good manager should understand that if they give you a higher priority task, then the lower priority task will be delayed. 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 scope of the problem. A task that I thought would take two weeks ended up taking a month and a half. "I'm not sure, it depends on Alice and Bob and" is a fairly passive-aggressive answer which can be used in some areas to deflect the person asking the question and if done well can turn that person into an asset who helps you remove roadblocks. Make them sit down, read, and agree to your assumptions (or, if you're lucky, get them to give in and give you real requirements). What are good methods given the start time and the current progress? It gives the answer you want, it's fairly factual and neutral in tone, and it suggests that an estimate could be made at some point, but certainly not right now here at the coffee machine without a clear picture of what would it actually mean to do the thing he's asking about. Validate as many as possible given the time frame. 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 Assign values and error ranges (+/-) to each value. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. So in short, there are many bad ways to dodge the question. Thanks for your answer. Whats the ETC were looking at here? Its a very confident phrase, so you need to make sure that you can be certain that its achievable. 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. Takedown request | View complete answer on uplandsoftware.com How do you ask did you check politely? How to accurately measure estimate without design as a Front End developer in agile? As a freelance consultant, she also supports companies and executives in overcoming communication challenges. What is the easiest way to get current GMT time in Unix timestamp format? (Off the record, I call these "guesstimates".). How can I deal with this situation? Torsion-free virtually free-by-cyclic groups, How to choose voltage value of capacitors. How to extract the coefficients from a long exponential expression? Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Guess who gets perceived as the jackass? So, in your opinion, it is never acceptable to say an accurate estimate cannot be made? Youre not going to get this delivered in time, are you? Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology?