Maturtiy and Estimates

Before I start today's blog, let us all realize and accept Software engineering as a discipline is not more than 60 years old. While Civil engineering is the oldest of engineering disciplines

There are two possible view points when it comes to Estimating irrespective of the Engineering branch: Planned vs Unplanned i.e if or not to start the execution without an estimate

•Do we then assume all the projects that are taken up are taken up without an estimation, which makes them successful ?
•Or, is it that all projects that have an estimate adhere to it and there is no schedule, cost, effort deviation ?

Having an estimate in place does not necessarily mean 100% 100% adherence to it while that would be possible in a “IDEAL WORLD” lets accept we are not living in one.

Ah! I get your next question, Then what makes it relevant to spend time and effort in devising an estimate?

An estimate serves (AND SHOULD ONLY SERVE)as a baseline against which we can measure the actual results post the execution of the project which can further be leveraged as a measure for any future project execution in the same Gamete of the current project.

Estimation of today’s world Software Projects irrespective of Dev/ Test discipline would only serve the purpose of promoting the respective Software Engineering Discipline to the next level of Maturity or Capability.

I completely understand that for a team working on estimates, it might be tiring to see their estimates failing again and again to deliver on commitments, but I can bet my salary that there is no less than 2% of improvement in 2 successive failures.

•1% comes from the experience(learning curve) gained from the previous failure
•1% comes from the lessons that the previous failure thought us

So I would not frustrate myself about an estimate that I signed off which didnt meet its commitment I would rather look for the learning I derived of it to make a much better commitment the next time !!

Civil Engineering today stands at the maturity which it stands at, as it constantly experimented, failed\passed, more importantly Evolved from each attempt and in my opinion that's what each of the other engineering disciplines should aim at!!