Mythbusting Software Estimation

In the world of software development, estimation challenges exist on multiple fronts. Teams are faced with estimating value, cost, and/or schedule at the task, story, project, and/or portfolio level. There are some agile practices that claim to help with estimation, including not doing estimation at all, but still many agile projects are challenged. In this session Todd will look into some of the reasons for these challenges by exploring a number of myths of software estimation and then setting out to validate or bust these myths. Learn what the real data says, not what some pundit says should be true. Some of the myths that will be explored include:

• Historical Estimation Accuracy
• Relative Estimation
• The Cone of Uncertainty
• Velocity
• Scope Creep
• Estimation Tools
• Wisdom of Crowds