DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Please enter at least three characters to search
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Refcards
Trend Reports

Events

View Events Video Library

Zones

Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Modernize your data layer. Learn how to design cloud-native database architectures to meet the evolving demands of AI and GenAI workkloads.

Secure your stack and shape the future! Help dev teams across the globe navigate their software supply chain security challenges.

Releasing software shouldn't be stressful or risky. Learn how to leverage progressive delivery techniques to ensure safer deployments.

Avoid machine learning mistakes and boost model performance! Discover key ML patterns, anti-patterns, data strategies, and more.

Related

  • Is Agile Right for Every Project? When To Use It and When To Avoid It
  • Breaking Bottlenecks: Applying the Theory of Constraints to Software Development
  • How Agile Outsourcing Accelerates Software Project Delivery
  • Rebalancing Agile: Bringing People Back into Focus

Trending

  • Java Virtual Threads and Scaling
  • Evolution of Cloud Services for MCP/A2A Protocols in AI Agents
  • A Complete Guide to Modern AI Developer Tools
  • How the Go Runtime Preempts Goroutines for Efficient Concurrency
  1. DZone
  2. Culture and Methodologies
  3. Agile
  4. Stop Estimating: The #NoEstimates Movement in Agile

Stop Estimating: The #NoEstimates Movement in Agile

Take a look at the growing and potentially revolutionary idea to stop estimating in Agile Sprints, and what the backdraws could be.

By 
Krista Trapani user avatar
Krista Trapani
·
Mar. 02, 18 · Review
Likes (8)
Comment
Save
Tweet
Share
22.0K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

There's a movement that's been growing last few years. It's brewing and it's picking up some steam. Or at the very least some brave souls and organizations are more open to experimenting with it.

This so-called #NoEstimates movement within the Agile community. Let the Twitter flame wars ensue!

The main premise of the movement is that estimates do not directly add value to your process or work, so you should find ways to reduce the estimation process or even stop it if possible. Meaning throw out your estimation efforts in hours, days, t-shirt sizing, or story points or whatever you're using for your units of effort. In a nutshell, find ways to make decision with "no estimates".

Let that sink in. Don't do estimates if possible.

As you can imagine this is very touchy, sensitive subject. I can feel your trepidation as I felt mine when I thought about it initially. Imagine telling your Vice President or Executive Business Sponsor, "So you thought story points were revolutionary. We found a new way to work better..."

I've typically coached teams to only estimate when it is necessary to help you decide on something. Which often than not is go estimate. Every stakeholder wants to know the effort and really, "How much is that going to cost me, and is it worth the ROI." Which usually leads to "How can I test it for cheaper, and prototype it quickly?" 

And ultimately if your teams are predictable in short time-frames, time-boxing estimation processes, breaking epics and stories into small digestible valuable chunks, focusing on continuous flow-based work, and continuously examining your cumulative flow diagram, is that not enough to say, "That'll take us about four sprints" without getting into level-of-effort discussions? I suppose that is a form of estimation.

Anyhow, circling back to the No Estimates movement—from my perspective this is a worthwhile experimentation and progression in the community looking at better ways to maximize delivering value and reducing any non-value add processes. If you look at the latest studies on delivery of projects/products many projects are still late or failed. So why even estimate?

Well, because a lot of people, and I mean a lot of people, are dependent on your project or product delivering. Other teams and groups are planning and re-planning as you go through your development iterations. So, what if you're late? That's not a reason to not provide an estimate. Customers and businesses want some form of predictability—even if it is inaccurate a lot of the time (airplane delays come straight to my mind)! The goal is that uncertainty reduces as you develop, learn, and iterate on your plans and timelines and gain more certainty. You'll refine your estimates and the expectations of your dependent stakeholders.

Now if that's not happening or you're spending significant amounts of time estimating and re-estimating and fighting over estimates or the development team is being squeezed and pressured by stakeholders because of their estimates—those, my friends, are separate issues.

I believe if you're working in a small development shop it is the perfect home for No Estimates experimentation. Realistically speaking, I think in bigger enterprises this will be a no-go, a "non-starter conversation," as one of my customers recently said to me. I'd love to try it one day as I think it has a place in this world—I just don't think quite yet we're there.

And if you don't believe me, bring it up to finance or that venture capital firm you took money from and see how they react. As I always say, "Follow where the money goes".

agile

Published at DZone with permission of Krista Trapani, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Is Agile Right for Every Project? When To Use It and When To Avoid It
  • Breaking Bottlenecks: Applying the Theory of Constraints to Software Development
  • How Agile Outsourcing Accelerates Software Project Delivery
  • Rebalancing Agile: Bringing People Back into Focus

Partner Resources

×

Comments
Oops! Something Went Wrong

The likes didn't load as expected. Please refresh the page and try again.

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Support and feedback
  • Community research
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends:

Likes
There are no likes...yet! 👀
Be the first to like this post!
It looks like you're not logged in.
Sign in to see who liked this post!