How to Estimate in Software Development with Gerard Beckerleg |

tv.ssw.com/noestimates-stop-ly... After his successful session last year on Agile Scrum, our resident Scrum White Robe Gerard Beckerleg is at it again, except this time he's taking on one of the most divisive topics in software development: Estimation.
In this video recorded at the Sydney SSW offices, Gerard Beckerleg takes a dive into the depths of this controversial topic and extracts the most interesting ideas and raises some very difficult questions about the big white elephant in the room that is Software Estimation.
After examining the pros and cons of estimation Gerard lays the blueprint for a better way to help you and your clients get what they are really looking for.
This is a must watch for developers and business people alike.
If you liked this content, please share and subscribe, and don't forget to hit the all-important 'like' button!
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More great content from Gerard
'How to Implement Scrum Using Team Foundation Server 2012 with Gerard Beckerleg'
In this video Gerard provides a practical demonstration of how to use the new Agile project management tools in TFS 2012 and many other best practices.
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'Agile in the Enterprise -- Lessons Learned in the Real World'
Great overview of lessons learned using Scrum in a real life Enterprise project. This video is hosted by Adam Cogan -- Chief Architect at SSW, who is joined by Keith Longworth -- the Product Owner for the project, and Gerard Beckerleg -- lead developer on the project. They talk candidly about the problems and issues that crept up during the 28 weeks of development. It's a great watch for business people and anyone who wants to know the benefits and possible pitfalls of the Agile development practice.
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'Mastering Scrum -- The Common Pitfalls and How to Overcome Them'
In this video Gerard and Marlon Merescia, Sales Manager at SSW, talk about the common pitfalls faced by teams working with Scrum and how you can overcome them.
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'What are the Dysfunctions of Scrum?'
In this short video Gerard is interviewed by Adam Cogan who discusses the main points of pain that teams face when using Scrum. Examples include; taking on tasks mid sprint; teams not understanding the acceptance criteria and teams not performing (or incorrectly performing) the Daily Standup. This is a must watch for developers who are working in Scrum teams.
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Taking a break from Scrum; in this short video Gerard interviewed 4 SharePoint experts at an SharePoint Saturday event held in Sydney. They share their thoughts on SharePoint 2013 and provide some top tips for developers.
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About The Presenter
Scrum guru Gerard Beckerleg has been a Solution Architect at SSW in Sydney since 2011. Although he specialises in Web applications, Gerard has extensive experience in Microsoft.NET and loves working with C#, MVC, SQL Server, Umbraco, Kendo UI and SharePoint. He also lists Scrum and agile practices as a passion. Using these skills and frameworks, Gerard has brought to life a raft of successful projects, such as Toll, Sydney Airports, McDonalds, Event Cinemas, and National Australia Day Council.
An established and confident speaker and trainer, Gerard has delivered numerous courses including SharePoint 2010 and .NET MVC at the University of Technology in Sydney, and is also a regular speaker at the Sydney and Canberra .NET User Groups.
PowerPoint Slides: www.slideshare.net/gerardbecke...
Check out Gerard's blog Tales of a White Robe (gerardbeckerleg.wordpress.com/) for more Scrum goodness. Also check out his SSW employee profile (sharepoint.ssw.com.au/AboutUs/...) if you'd like to contact him.

[@nadeemamode]

Favorite #Agile video. Very prophetic and still holds up 6 years later

[@fathomsynth6602]

This is the best video I’ve seen so far on the topic of software estimation.

[@ahmedam77]

Such a unique, one of a kind session. I couldn't related more to that. AMAZING talk!

[@IntraFinesse]

I just came across this, even though its 7 years old it's still spot on. Good material and Well presented.

[@nojybear]

West Wing fan by any chance?? :) Interesting content - I think that there are a few things that when blended together gives a sensible approach. Value based planning is a great idea; function point analysis can give an fairly objective feel for why an estimate is what it is - and that can be helpful to create a dialogue between the dev team and the business; most of all though I think it should be considered that an estimate (which is a range!) is something to be regarded as a useful starting point, to have frequent bite size deliverables (creating a drumbeat of delivery), and for the schedule to be revisited as experience is gained and learning occurs.

[@azeyn2050]

Great content! And yes London underground is a perfect example :)

[@basra567]

Very nice video sir..just wanted to know one thing..all the slides displayed here were displayed in microsoft powerpoint app right?

[@SSWTV]

Hi Robin, yes the slides were presented from PowerPoint, here is a link: www.slideshare.net/gerardbeckerleg/noestimates-stop-lying-to-yourself-and-your-customers-and-stop-estimating

[@abduljabbarazam943]

When I first started working with my current employer I didn't know how to do accurate estimates. I still can't do accurate estimates now. I've been with my current employer for over 25 years.

[@AbhishekGupta-uu3uy]

Best video on estimation, learned so much

[@SSWTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@this.is.lapc506]

TL;DR 32:40 Gerard beings speaking about Risk and Uncertainty Management Checkpoint Meetings between the project manager, developers and product owner (external or inrternal). There you are, you can continue your life.

[@hinchan1782]

are we willing to be hired by 2 weeks basis and see how we work then extend another 2 weeks of our employment contract?

[@pepikkk10]

Thank You!

[@dergeneralist7106]

I have a suggestion: Let experienced people do the estimation in oppositon to people who just finished university....I think this is a good start :D

[@EwaldDieser]

Daniel Mihajlovic yes, but then the management assigns some novice programmers to do the implementation. How much is the estimate then worth?

[@unorevers7160]

Im not sure youre getting the principials of the Scrum process right in your critics. The idea of estimating a story in an scrum process is to get an overwiev over the teams velocity. I'll give you a point were you say, that estimation is hard and its most likely your estimation will not take all your dependencies into account. But thats exaclty why its called an estimate. We're estimating because there is no human being who can get this on the mark. The agil knows that and instead of making up stupid deadlines by asking the developer how long the working process needs, scrum works with a "fictional" time measurement, the story points. A story point is something designed for your team. You speak about how its a problem doing an estimation for an fellow employee. The spirit of scrum instead is estimating the story as a group. Over a distant period of time your team will get better at estimation and your teams velocity gets more concrete. But lets try to imagine to run a project without the estimation process. The first question that comes into my mind is: "how to keep up with deadlines ?". There is no instance that determines how long your work will last, not even an estimate in fact, something wich I would describe as complete randomness and anarchy. With scrum we get some tools to support our estimations. Through small sprits we receive PO's feedback and furthermore we get the possibilitys of interaction. You can tell the PO's about your problems which can result in the PO's adapting the software requirements. It might be even rational to drop a project at some point. Thats were the estimate kicks in again. With an estimation you can at least controll your failures if theres an project very hard to estimate tell the PO and after a sprint you come to a decision about further progression. Im not trying to make my point incontestable, but I want to get into a dialog, tell me more about your opnion if you please.

[@dergeneralist7106]

And terminate the contract with the person who told you to do the estimation. I met a some managers with no sense of business, doing things in the wrong way. Sometimes I wonder, how some people get into the position of being a manager, oooooh my god hahaha.....I can laugh now, but if you experience some decisions of pm's on projects, it's worth crying...

[@kahnfatman]

Been watching the #NoEstimates videos. I always feel bad for giving wrong estimates, ever since I graduated from university. I have always looked for some senior person who can give me well defined strategies to precise estimates. Such estimates don't exist. Such senior engineers don't exist either. This is the RED PILL.

[@DudeWatIsThis]

36:35 The key part

[@andersbodin1551]

I loled so hard att padding with 15%, I always multiply my estimates by Pi.

[@andersbodin1551]

Nobody says that you need to get better at estimation if you are always overestimating by massive amounts.

[@netics2]

Very nice topic, but would be nicer if the guy could hold a normal voice tone and not scream randomly... Had to close the video when listening in the car due to exaggerated increase in volume in some parts of the speech :(

[@SSWTV]

Really sorry about that, our latest audio processes makes sure that everything is nice and level throughout, hopefully you can enjoy our newer and future videos in the car, the same way I listen :)

[@nagkumar]

Yes, focus always on analysis of what is delivered in a given time and budget i.e. effectiveness of produced to master low cost/time and to create high value. It is so simple. not sure why entire world is struggling with a managed way. I call this as #bottom-up value analysis more than #top-down estimates stupidity

[@a0um]

Can’t stand the slides. Just a distraction from an interesting topic.

[@steveomo2001]

i dont agree with this sorry/

[@francuca84]

why were you estimating in the first place if you were a graduate? Fix that and you save us 1h of talking...

[@legitjimmyjaylight8409]

Are you a software dev?