how to ask for estimated time of completion

Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Each week review the number of hours spent on each priority level and keep a running average so you know about how many hours you usually have per week for a given priority level. Based on comments on other answers, it appears that your problem is not time estimating but communicating delays based on changing priorities. The idea is to compute the ETC from the last 'n' seconds or minutes (like your second idea). Identify a few past projects, and assign them the sizes S, M, L, XL. I'm stressed by having software deadlines imposed on me without my involvement. Is the only way to say, "I can't say right now, check with me at [given time]" ? . Try to talk to your neighbor, first. To calculate variance, with V being variance, use this equation: V=[(P - O)/ 6]^2. As a result, I always end up giving estimates that I later realize I cannot fulfill. Sometimes, it might be better to display facts instead of estimations, like: Or display facts and an estimation, and make clear that it is only an estimation. If you can't say something about when you will be done, the project ends up being even later and often costing more money. Nag a little if needed, but use the human touch to explain what you need and by when you need it. This is your responsibility to factor in unless you expect others to have the expertise about this area. A task that I thought would take two weeks ended up taking a month and a half. Would I be able to get an answer by next Tuesday?, Asking for deadlines shouldnt be painful. I will be booking it when they open tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. I dont think thats going to work at all! Specially when you feel the pressure . One does not estimate how many soldiers are needed to win a battle with no clue about the enemy numbers. I imagine it ultimately comes down to company culture, or the disposition of those who you are working with. Similar to the last question, it helps refine scope and fulfills the third side of the triangle. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Whats the ETC were looking at here? Really, you can tell that some people cant take the silence. It's not as common as ETA, so it's probably best that you don't use it often. Your new game-changing quick reference tool is just a click away. Suspicious referee report, are "suggested citations" from a paper mill? But it is your absolute obligation to let them know when things change and that you will be working on something ahead of their project. Explain. The new feature will probably break some assumptions you made in your While my estimates ultimately proved inaccurate, I gave him what I thought it would take per request but made sure he knew it was subject to change. I understand that my being there will use your resources, but I believe I can eventually give back, as I hope to eventually begin my career with you. Let them go fight out the priorities with the managers. Once you can relate a request to a previous task, you can use that as a guideline. (Are you the same Kyralessa from the joel on software boards?). "Our non-employees are our greatest asset!". Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. The estimations were important because other units may be inoperable until they received back their comms equipment. Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most. There are a lot of tactics for creating them, all based on getting good requirements first. And realize that your clients asking for estimates will be totally inaccurate here about how they word things and understand the technical aspects of what you say. This is unless you already fought this enemy. "I'm not sure, when are you going to get me X?" IMO, this is. Manage Settings And our advise is: discussion of the project and providing ballpark figures should just be steps well towards receiving componential estimate (which is flexible, one can make use of componential type estimate for the whole development process. I asked you to have it done and on my desk. . You need to complete this to graduate. How Do You Say Politely I Am Waiting For Your Reply? The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. being polite . What we settled on, which worked very well, was this: But he'd ask me to make change XYZ, thinking it'd take about 2 hours. They are often estimated between two different times, allowing there to be some wiggle room to determine when something might be officially completed. Once you have a solution, estimating is easier. Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology? Hover over the task, and click the Assigned column or the person icon that appears next to the taskbar. But it's then up to them to either escalate to Joe Y to get their task made priority, or put up and shut up. rev2023.3.1.43269. If not, or in case of doubt, involve your boss. The duration should be between twenty and thirty minutes. There are a lot of tactics for creating them, all based on getting good requirements first. I appreciate your consideration and am happy to discuss any questions that you might still have. Here is a phrase you can use: "Dear (Recruiter), Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with your company. Don't do an estimate at this point. How much do you feel improved today? Contact Michael to find out what time hes going to be able to upload this. This is quite a hefty completion time! Think of it from the user standpoint, because that's all the client you're making the estimate for will typically understand. @nobrandheroes That's probably worth another question. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. Studies have demonstrated that users reacted very badly to slow-down and very positively to speed-up. ETA is acceptable to use in place of estimated time of completion. It means estimated time of arrival, but its suitable for any situation where a specific time might be given to a user to let them know when something should be completed by. 10 hours a week? A bit late but when I was in the military we were instructed to use PERT to determine estimates. . Or to the whole estimate? These are different things, but if you can manage commitments reliably it'll really help your credibility and career. Indicate when progress has stalled - although if progress consistently stalls and then continues, we should be able to deal with that. Can you find it online? I appreciate how patient youve been. Decompose this model and build estimates from the components. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. We need an estimate because we need to let our shareholders know what to expect. Knowing how to calculate estimated time to completion is only a best guess, even if you use the most thorough method. Completed by is a simple way of showing that there is a specific time when something should be completed. Instead, you can convey your estimate, and give a degree of accuracy to your estimate. Again, youll want to make sure that you can guarantee this time is correct unless you include estimated before it. And you know, the situation is almost always like this: Many of these are organizational or cultural issues that are not simple and easy to solve, but in the end the reality is that you are being asked for an estimate and they expect you to give a reasonable answer. Estimate total completion time is required when workload is executed as a batch of queries. How can I make a boss (or colleague) be more careful when estimating the complexity of a task/project? I've read some books that say a range of -50% to +100% is good but it depends on many factors. Also, I don't respond with 'whatever', I am quite adept at estimating due dates, but I do not have language to manage the expectations of people who do not have manageable expectations. This sprint is XYZ." Can you find one of the IT guys to let me know what else we might be waiting on here? Centering layers in OpenLayers v4 after layer loading, Am I being scammed after paying almost $10,000 to a tree company not being able to withdraw my profit without paying a fee. Different things take different amount amounts of time, effort and resources to put together. After all, if its something you want to do, go and enjoy it! It's easy to be accurate with an estimate that's too long, you just get more time to work on the problem and solve it better. How do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline? Three-point estimating. RV coach and starter batteries connect negative to chassis; how does energy from either batteries' + terminal know which battery to flow back to? That said, be careful not to estimate yourself into a hole. Thankfully I knew I didn't have a proper grasp on the time requirement going in. If I hit roadblocks so that after 3 hours I could tell that my 8.5-hour task was going to take 12, I could talk to him about it before more time passed so he could reevaluate and yank the feature if he was concerned about the cost. If the estimate is just to provide a general idea on when it will be ready, I can generally do a quick estimate based on my experience. Do you think thats going to be enough time to get everything together? Of course, make this a computer application, not a physical board. Determine the scope of the problem. Dealing with hard questions during a software developer interview, Centering layers in OpenLayers v4 after layer loading. No shooting from the hip. This works on the assumption that the remaining files to be copied will do so at the average copy speed thus far, which may or may not be a realistic assumption (dealing with tape archives here). Hold on, what did you say the time frame was again? by accurate I mean that a stakeholder holds you accountable for. An added bonus was their respectful and positive personalities. I like the empirical approach here. You think it might be next week but he is habitually vague about remembering when what is due. What is ETA on completion? Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. Nobody has done an in depth analysis of all the implications. Fixed scope and resources - but I am being asked for an exact release date. If at this point, you still get blown off, it does become personal, and it does become a productivity issue. The requirements are unclear. How to find list of possible words from a letter matrix [Boggle Solver]. Sean, I would like a deck out here, but I would need it to be completely finished by June 10th, so that I have time to use it on July 4th. Track the time necessary for each aspect of the task and record the data. Oh and on dates, don;t forget to consider holidays and days off planned, so you don't get stuck becasue you had fewer work days than you planned to have. total completion time. Katie is a passionate digital nomad working on her first book on the art of communication. "That depends, what does it need to do?" "That depends, how well does it need to work?" Often times I will include any uncertainty or possible variations with the estimate along with how the changes may impact other areas of the system and the extent of regression testing required. Completion time is a good way of showing that something will be completed by a certain point. Were really sorry if thats going to cause any issues. This is the best answer, imho. On the other hand, if you're budgeting for six months for a project, but the project might actually take a year, would you rather find that out after six months, or after two or three? rclayton.silvrback.com/software-estimation-is-a-losing-game, marcgg.com/blog/2015/08/27/deadlines-estimates-software-startup, The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master, programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/132970/, The open-source game engine youve been waiting for: Godot (Ep. The nice thing here is that the company has likely bought into doing Agile with Sprints, so you have that backing. Make sure you understand what is being asked. Estimates given at the coffee machine will (like the coffee) come back to haunt you. A model might be a mental model, diagrams, or existing data records. I have worked on a project similar to this. Calculate the estimate based on your model. Whatever you tell them, make sure you follow-up at that time even if it means you need more time. The most common place for it to come up is in the military. Often the person asking wants to know so that they can plan. To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. Whats the end time youve got in mind? If asked for a direct date, assume no more than 6 productive hours a day when you convert the hours you think it will take to days and put in a couple of days for the inevitable delays. I suggest you to have regular progress update for your boss, customer or any stakeholder. 37 Plus years in the industry If more people can't be hired, then just have a pool of contractors on tap and dole tasks out to them. I can't tell you how many times I botched up an initial meeting with a client by not putting on professionalism when giving an estimate. The excuses are usually something along the lines of, Oh, sorry. If so, I would like to hire you, and I would like to put it in writing.. How To Ask A Photographer To Adjust Photos. Calculate the estimate based on your model. The new feature will probably break some assumptions you made in your code and you start thinking immediately of all the things you might have to refactor. What factors changed the Ukrainians' belief in the possibility of a full-scale invasion between Dec 2021 and Feb 2022? To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. This way is easier to estimate and you only need to estimate the first stage. Dear Property Manager: We are the owners of a home at 123 Maple Street. The boss wants me to pass it to him, so he knows when to expect it all. How do you give your top choice a little nudge? Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby? How can the mass of an unstable composite particle become complex? @SergioAcosta the point is you use the analysis/estimation time to break down the task into smaller chunks. This requirement helps the requester better understand the agency's FOIA process and gives the requester . A target isnt always set in stone, and its possible for you to move it around it you need to accommodate certain changes to a deadline or structure.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'grammarhow_com-banner-1','ezslot_9',107,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-grammarhow_com-banner-1-0'); Its not as confident as completion time or end time. It works well because it gives you a target, but it doesnt always require you to hit it. except he finishes on time in exactly 5 months. . What are good methods given the start time and the current progress? If nothing else, make sure you document your attempts to find out when things are needed. is a more plainly aggressive response where someone is meddling in your business but not taking care of theirs. Easily monitor estimated completion time with live tracking. Wie sagt man hflich Ich warte auf Ihre Antwort? Ballpark is what is often called a guesstimate. Speed. A simple way to get that is to have a factor that is a percentage of the completion, that you use to tweak the estimated remaining time. No need to re-estimate from scratch when you want to add, remove or replace features, services etc). Today through 4pm Sunday: Take $5K off the list price, Only $1,000 Earnest Money (Primary Residence. Reasonable people should respond in a timely way. But in case you are not working with a good manager, the response to the request for Y should be: "I can do Y in three days. An outright lie, or a date you have no intention of keeping would be worse. Answering "how long will this take?" I have implemented two different solutions to address this problem: The ETC for the current transfer at start time is based on a historic speed value. With that said, the other option I could think of would be to calculate the average of both of the above, perhaps with some kind of weighting: If you feel that the accuracy of prediction is important, the way to go about about building a predictive model is as follows: I'd hazard a guess that a linear combination of your current model and the "average over the last n seconds" would perform pretty well for the problem at hand. Is it going to be within the next three hours or not? ", This. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. Record information about the problem you are estimating, your estimate, and the actual values. Not recommended. Master 101 frequent business situations with our eBook! I will need your data by August 13th, by 1:00 p.m.. I didnt see your email. Tell them that they can talk to the manager if they disagree with the current priorities. 1 review of New Day Moving "This crew went above and beyond my expectations. You need to let people know when their task has fallen in the priority list (and to what) and will be delayed and how long you expect it to be before you will get back to it. If we hurry it up anymore, were going to lose a lot of quality work! In this case, its business, and its not so much about politely asking, its about telling. How do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline? Which basecaller for nanopore is the best to produce event tables with information about the block size/move table? A text conversation can go stale in a few hours, he says. An estimate that's too short leaves no breathing room at all, you either meet it desperately or you're screwed. How to respond when you are asked for an estimate? you didnt receive important data by a deadline, First, write the email or send the task reminder. That is something that you should never say. Every week calculate how much is left to do, re-estimate based on what you know. Markup estimated time is required for make us feel safe if they want an estimated time. I didnt realize the project was going to take this long on your own. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. To estimate the queries according to their interaction aware scheme because queries are run in batches. It's a weather forecast. That's bad advice, and a poor approach to these things. It part of what you are being paid for, so stop copping out with "whenever." How do you politely ask for estimated time of completion? This is kind of confusing to show in a GUI, but okay to show in a command line app. But, since the Requirements aren't written yet, I will be able to provide a more precise estimate once I read them." To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Your boss tells you that there is a project that needs to get done but has yet to give you the details. Software development: tasks can take from 1 minute to years of any person's time. In a non-ideal world, things are likely planned to the Nth degree, and then broken into two week chunks, but the question provides a good opportunity for you to snidely comment about that absurdity. Continue with Recommended Cookies. their associated calculated values. @r.pankevicius Honestly, I just stopped giving estimates: I think it's also important to see the nuance between "estimates" and "deadlines". Browse other questions tagged, Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide. What can I do to get better at estimating how long projects are going to take? Stack Exchange network consists of 181 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. How to explain that it's hard to estimate the time required for a bigger software project? Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. I've had car mechanics, plumbers, home builders, etc. Every user knows that ETCs are often completely meaningless, and then it is hard to distinguish between meaningful ETCs and meaningless ETCs, especially for inexperienced users. "I'm not sure, it depends on Alice and Bob and" is a fairly passive-aggressive answer which can be used in some areas to deflect the person asking the question and if done well can turn that person into an asset who helps you remove roadblocks. We need it in writing ASAP. Is there no way that you can speed. So when my boss would ask in the standup (we work with Agile development) I would give him my best estimate and explain why I thought that. How do you politely get a deadline out of him? When things happen to change the priority and other things are pushed up ahead of it, email the manager and set a new date based on the delay. ), 9 Other Ways to Say Im Good At on a Resume, 10 Polite Ways to Say No Visitors after Surgery, 11 Best Ways to Say Im Here for You to a Loved One, 10 Professional Ways to Say I Am Not Feeling Well. It has happened countless of times, and I always promise it won't happen again. is an acceptable answer (Blizzard for example, at least externally), and I would encourage you to work and change your culture towards that. Example: When is the completion date for room 3 curtains and trimmings? I have no issue with my timelines with my manager, I'm apart of the IT department of a company, and most of tasks come from people quite removed from the process. Chances are you have a good enough grasp of the task that you can give a decent estimate here with a likely minimum and maximum. In any event, "whenever' is not an acceptable answer. Learn It Here! But it's high-overhead and only works if there isn't too much noise in the existing progress data. If not, then he saved 7.5 hours over what it would've cost him if I'd done it without an estimate. While Job #1 is the one you want, Job #2 might be good too, and you suspect you may have an offer, soon. Probably this is why most of teams do 2 week sprints :). Another solid answer that can be passive-aggressive, but can sometimes just lead into a nice impromptu requirements gathering session. I've recommended them to family and friends." I've done something similar involving curve fitting. The second part of this is human contact. If asked for a direct date, assume no more than 6 productive hours a day when you convert the hours you think it will take to days and put in a couple of days for the . That is what we term to be good manners.. Imagine you have applied for some jobs. in your estimate to get a better number. You estimate valiantly, "one week". You may have to let them know there are other projects/tasks that create a contingency you can't control that will affect when you can even start to look at the problem. Duration gives you an idea of how long something will take. Its exasperating! This approach estimates the completion time based on any of the above mentioned methods but considering 3 scenarios. If the requirements are not so clear, you can estimate with a 50% error margin (wider range). Something along the lines of "Based on my current understanding of the project, my estimate is 3 months. If the estimate is used for anything contractual or in a scenario where more precise timing is required, I do a full work break down. Check your schedule. Typically, I only wait 15-20 seconds for a response. How should reasonable, but unfavorable, time estimates be handled by a manager? all the implications. I dont mind an estimate, but I dont like the three-hour disparity between your numbers. Many thanks! Never write "it will work on IE8 or higher", be specific. All that will do is irritate your manager and make you look incompetent. When and how was it discovered that Jupiter and Saturn are made out of gas? Being on good terms with your neighbors is important, but sometimes it can be difficult. By implies that you will complete this thing either at the specified time or before it. Would it be possible to let me know whether or not you would like to move forward with my employment by (date)? Browse other questions tagged, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site. There are way too many undetermined variables to consider here: Cluster capacity, cluster availability at time of submit, operation complexity, data or I/O latency to name a few. Estimates for what? Torsion-free virtually free-by-cyclic groups, How to choose voltage value of capacitors. We dont have a lot of wiggle room here, so we need it to be quick. Number 1 is probably easy enough for a rough guess. Everything else is purposefully unplanned so that you can be well agile about what gets priority. You have other things to do from past assignments and you will have to The 'done' definition is probably unclear: When will it be done? - adam. Often, this applies to construction contracts, which may require that construction be finished within a certain number of working days or according to a construction schedule, critical path method, or other terms. But it does." I can't recommend that book highly enough. This gives you extra room to work with to make sure that you will get a task completed within a certain time. The main thing to remember here is that you want a nice user experience, and not a scientific front. It's best to assume that unless you have a reason to think otherwise. If all else fails, try to research it yourself. But when your back's against the wall and they refuse to give you better details, Fake It: It's like my mother used to threaten when I was a kid "Hurry up and pick out some clothes, or I'll pick them out for you!". Pretending you are too busy to answer is not acceptable either. End time is a confident phrase like completion time. Its a good way of showing that something will come to an end at a specific moment. Here is the link, if you want to check out the menu and prices.. Improve estimated completion time via better algo/filter etc. Theyre causing too much trouble on the back-end. Make them sit down, read, and agree to your assumptions (or, if you're lucky, get them to give in and give you real requirements). Software estimation is the most difficult single task in software engineering- a close second being requirements elicitation. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. Because the time was broken down so minutely, I could tell early on if I was slipping. Having said that, "When will you be done?" Use the data to develop an estimate. Sometimes (or actually always, because of Murphy's law) you will get asked for an estimate while you are still working that out. We understand you manage the property at 125 Maple Street. When will be your project finished?

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