How to get your deliverables done on time? It’s called Agile estimating

Isn’t one of the best achievements when you actually do deliver a project on time, it’s a moment of holy grail. You can do it too, yes we’re talking real, it’s doable; it’s the talent of predicting what can be delivered in a given timeframe, even if the same team was hopeless at estimating before.

Here’s a method that we like to refer to as “Agile Estimating”, it’s actually very simple, and that’s really the beauty of it. It seems a bit abstract; so many people might be preserved to give it a try, you’ll need to give it several Sprints before you pass judgment on it. You will find your Velocity bounces all over the place for the first 3-4 Sprints. But then it will settle down, as your team discovers its norm.

• Estimate features, not tasks
• Keep your estimates high-level intuitive guesses (don’t analyse the details)
• Estimate in points to indicate the relative size of each feature.
• Consider estimating using a number sequence
• Team work is important, estimate as a whole team not on individual levels
• At the end of your Sprint (or iteration), score the points for all features you managed to deliver. This way you will be able to estimate your speed and productivity rate
• Track your productivity rate and speed to be more accurate with your estimates
• You can also track your Reliability, i.e. the number of points delivered as a percentage of the number of points committed to at the start of the Sprint.
• Don’t try to reconcile points with hours or days
• TEAM COMMITEMNT IS EVERYTHING

This method is basically a statistical approach to estimation, And statistically, if you estimate with relativity, everything is average in the end. But if you are basing your estimates on correct numbers and figures, it will never go wrong.