Stop rolling the dice: an approach to effort estimation in software development by Luca Camerini

Stop rolling the dice: a hands-on approach to effort estimation in software development Yes, back at it. Effort estimation. In the era of Agile and Lean methods, one still cannot escape the problem of estimating how much effort a software project requires. Why is that the case? Well, maybe your sponsor or project manager needs to evaluate feasibility or profitability; maybe your sales department needs to put numbers on a tender application; maybe it’s just a matter of taking a decision towards a project or another. No matter if we hate or love them, estimates are part of the life of anyone involved in the software industry. So, how do we tackle them? How should I approach estimation as a software engineer, team leader or dev? What err(s) should we all try to avoid? In this presentation, we will overview some approaches to effort estimation taking a pragmatic approach to it and introducing a toolbox that can be applied to real-case scenarios. Referencing some core concepts of decision making in software development (Strazzulo), extreme contracting (Romei), and storming techniques (Brandolini) we will guide the audience into a journey towards better estimation and provide them with useful tooling for their next estimation. The presentation is not only for devs who need to make effort estimations, but also for decision makers that need to evaluate their soundness. The issue here being not how to avoid estimating, but how to approach the inevitable without rolling a dice.