In a recent post, the saga of No Estimates as a basis of spending other people's money continues. Let's start with the definition of No Estimates.
Quit estimates cold turkey. Get some kind of first-stab working software into the customer's hands as quickly as possible, and proceed from there. What does this actually look like? When a manager asks for an estimate up front, developers can ask right back, "Which feature is most important? - then deliver a working prototype of that feature in two weeks. Deliver enough working code fast enough, with enough room for feedback and refinement, and the demand for estimates might well evaporate. Let's stop trying to predict the future. Let's get something done and build on that - we can steer toward better.
Let's deconstruct this acclamation for spending your customer's money in an Open Loop manner, with no visibility to how much money is needed to reach the desired set of capabilities or when those desired capabilities will be available to start producing value in exchange for that money.
