Estimating is part of all decision making in the presence of uncertainty. Accuracy and precision are two primary attributes of all estimates.
We all know estimates are hard. But there are lots of hard things in the development of enterprise software. We wouldn't be whining about how hard it is to construct a good First Normal Form database schema, or bullet proof our cyber security front end from attack by the Chinese would we.
So why is estimating a topic that seems to be the whipping boy for software developers these days?
My first inclination is that estimating is not taught very well in the software arts. In engineering schools it is. Estimating is part of all engineering disciplines. One undergraduate and one graduate degree is in physics. Estimating is at the very heart of that discipline. A second graduate degree is in Systems Management - which is a combination of Systems Engineering and Managerial Finance - how to manage the technical processes of engineering programs with the principles of managerial finance, contract law, and probabilistic decision making.
This book comes with a spreadsheet for making the needed estimates to increase the probability of project success. It opens with an important quote that should be a poster on the wall of any shop spending other people's money
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all the behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish - Luke 14:28-30
