I can't remember where I read it initially, but the take that I love about estimates goes something like this:
Software is trivially copy-able, and as such large software projects are unique enough that accurately estimating them is impossible. This is in contrast to something like building a house. I build a single house, figure out how much that cost and now have a very good reference point for how much building that same house over and over will be.
I really like the approach that Basecamp recommend in Shape Up[1] where the team pivots to reasoning about work in terms of appetitie rather than expected time.
Software is trivially copy-able, and as such large software projects are unique enough that accurately estimating them is impossible. This is in contrast to something like building a house. I build a single house, figure out how much that cost and now have a very good reference point for how much building that same house over and over will be.
I really like the approach that Basecamp recommend in Shape Up[1] where the team pivots to reasoning about work in terms of appetitie rather than expected time.
[1] https://basecamp.com/shapeup/1.2-chapter-03#setting-the-appe...