There are companies/cultures where "When it's done." Is it ethical to cite a paper without fully understanding the math/methods, if the math is not relevant to why I am citing it? This is the best answer, imho. Make sure you understand what is being asked. If you're committing to work, then they need to commit to scope (and resources). If you go over the deadline specified, you missed the point of by. Naturally, this could put you in your bosss bad books, so be careful with the times you set here! Any idea how do you estimate such timing on the spot? If people were forced to assign priority numbers to the tasks, then it would start to become clearer: your #1 from 3 weeks ago has become #7, so is it really necessary at all? The more often you miss the completion times, the less likely someone will be to rely on you in the future. How do you make a story point estimate for a story that you are only partially familiar with? Calculate the estimate based on your model. Record information about the problem you are estimating, your estimate, and the actual values. Once you provide your estimates (no matter how they are derived), keep your stakeholders in the loop if anything happens that will change your estimate - particularly as deadlines loom. It only takes a minute to sign up. Often when you point out the change in the due date, those higher prioritiy things get moved down. How do you get your contractor to respond with a deadline? So if it is like 5 months project you should be estimating it for a month or more. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. How to find list of possible words from a letter matrix [Boggle Solver]. @Darius.V, you make a good point. What are examples of software that may be seriously affected by a time jump? Another increasingly common one: I didnt get to it. (No excuse given; they just didnt do it.) Assign values and error ranges (+/-) to each value. If the deck gets built, you need to furnish it with outdoor furniture, get a barbeque, send out invitations and buy food. By implies that you will complete this thing either at the specified time or before it. I try to work around it, try to really think about how long I think something will take, trying to identify all the potential trouble spots and bits that look too black-box-y for me to be accurately estimating. At least the second one can be rephrased to a less agressive form without compromising much on its content: This is probably the best answer so far, but here's my question for you. In fact, when you are making an estimate for your own company the estimate time is being paid as part of your salary also. No shooting from the hip. Yes you can. If you do run into something unexpected, make it known at the time instead of waiting until the deadline. Learn It Here! In this case, its business, and its not so much about politely asking, its about telling. Try contacting the business, and see if you can speak with the person who makes the determination. Present a range based on what you know today. The requirements are unclear. 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. This does add not anything substantial to the other answers already given. How might you (politely) ask for this to be put into motion? One that I've used is this Free Online PERT Calculator. In some situations, we need to know how to ask nicely. Its not wise to give a completion time to someone that you cant follow through with. For example, the cubic function produces the nice speed-up toward the completion time. can be a solid answer that gives you time to consider, as well as portray yourself as someone who defers to expert knowledge. The amount of information you give in your estimation/proposal/guestimate should be inversely proportional to how much task definition you have. This sprint is XYZ." And I was glad to get experience in estimating, which I'd always been terrible at. Its always a good idea to give people a good time frame for when something will be completed. Our goal is to create English lessons that are easy to understand for everyone. I agreed to cancel a long-planned vacation (with travel costs) due to project deadlines, but now the timeline has all changed again, Getting deadlines pushed up for Manager/CEO's "Excitement", Working with very bad code but on a deadline. We dont have a lot of wiggle room here, so we need it to be quick. Understand the user-end requirement here, think like a user. Or, if they are in a shared office space, go and talk to them. Is that a realistic possibility? Is it added to each line item? Field service and maintenance companies can easily monitor these times using live tracking. Do you need extra help? No matter how conscious you are of all these things, sometimes your Tell him what you think it will take (if you can't define the steps and roughly what they will take, then you probably need to have someone do a better job on the requirements, so tell him that the requirements are unclear and thus you can't determine what it will take. Here is a phrase you can use: "Dear (Recruiter), Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with your company. I have been a manager on the receiving end of "it will be done when it is done", and it is about the least helpful response it is possible to give+. The screenshot below shows a dispatcher's view of service professionals' live status. A model might be a mental model, diagrams, or existing data records. The project will be delivered within the next twenty-four hours. Manage Settings 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. Can you find one of the IT guys to let me know what else we might be waiting on here? . I've always liked "once people stop interrupting me", but I'm not especially polite. I cant be dealing with estimates right now. How can I deal with this situation? 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. What are the underlying data structures used for Redis? I suggest you to have regular progress update for your boss, customer or any stakeholder. 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. Is there no way that you can speed. @DJClayworth does it help you in any way if you get told an arbitrary date, you make plans based on that date, and on that date find out the reality of "it will be done when it's done"? If the baseline isn't stable the estimate is meaningless. For context, I'm trying to predict the completion of a long file copy. Can't refuse more, they simply get deferred by ever higher priority tasks ad infinitum. But it does. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. This is pretty easy to understand, and it is also clear that there is lots of uncertainty in those guesses. I asked you to have it done and on my desk. There are occasions in life both business and social when you need a deadline. "I'm not sure, when are you going to get me X?" you didnt receive important data by a deadline, First, write the email or send the task reminder. Provide interval instead of single time ('1h45-2h30 mins'), or just limit the precision ('about 2 hours'). 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. How To Ask A Photographer To Adjust Photos. It's best to assume that unless you have a reason to think otherwise. Target time is a good one because it refers to an estimate. The estimations were important because other units may be inoperable until they received back their comms equipment. Dont just make them wait. If youre crushing on someone, dont play mind games, he says. Method 1. One way would be to put: Requesting Status Update (on the subject line) and write something similar to: "As discussed, I am waiting for ________ (name of project) which has a deadline of ________ and I would like to know, as of immediately, the status and your expected date of completion." originally suppose it might take. Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. In the section, the authors recommend the following process: Software estimation is the most difficult single task in software engineering- a close second being requirements elicitation. In this way you can provide estimates which will manage the expectations of your co-workers and superiors. I will need your data by August 13th, by 1:00 p.m.. One way would be to put: Requesting Status Update (on the subject line) and write something similar to: As discussed, I am waiting for ________(name of project) which has a deadline of ________ and I would like to know, as of immediately, the status and your expected date of completion.. Get more granular and identify the substeps of each part. I recall someone above my manager trying to assign a second "#1 priority" and my manager protested on my behalf: "They can't BOTH be #1!" Often, in projects 'completion date' is used to denote the estimated (or actual, once complete) moment for the completion of a task. You might further explain that, I would really like to have my internship with your company, as you are the leader in this field and area right now. 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. Pick up the phone and talk to them. Thankfully I knew I didn't have a proper grasp on the time requirement going in. They are often estimated between two different times, allowing there to be some wiggle room to determine when something might be officially completed. 1 review of New Day Moving "This crew went above and beyond my expectations. You sound like a self-motivated hard worker and possibly one who gives in easily to coercion. How to Estimate Time Accurately Use these steps to make accurate time estimates: Step 1: Understand What's Required Start by identifying all of the work that needs to be done within the project. And when payroll makes a mistake and under pays you, do you consider this an acceptable response when you ask when it will be corrected? How much does Joe work? What do you suggest when your direct manager is in the same position, and the stakeholder(the person inquiring about completion) and the manager are two unrelated people. make a forecast on how much time it will take you to accomplish a task; use this forecast in your planning; add enough extra time for safety; measure the time it actually takes to accomplish the task; document the hours spent on a task in your journal; compare forecast and actual time after finishing the task; learn from this comparison; A newly proposed product or project will be similar (in size) to one or more already completed products or projects. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. And then ask yourself: which project does that sound similar to in scope? It part of what you are being paid for, so stop copping out with "whenever." To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Determine the scope of the problem. Best, (signature). If you track tasks and time already it shouldn't be hard, but even if you don't just keep a notepad, and every time you finish a task write down the priority level and how many hours you spent on it. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. I found that with this method I was able to bring most tasks in on time or even early, without having to heavily overestimate. I like "there is no estimate for that yet.". Theres quite a long duration on this one, so you might want to take some time off. Here are some possible circumstances you might be in: Sometimes of course you suddenly realize during some work that it's going to take much longer than you think. All that will do is irritate your manager and make you look incompetent. +Not technically the least helpful response. 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. You have other things to do from past assignments and you will have to come up with an estimate that takes that other work into account. Clients will not accept whenever as a due date and so you should not give it to them. Whats the ETC were looking at here? Perhaps 'about 2 hours, currently stalled' Based on the duration, you can quote the estimate in different precision. Everything else is purposefully unplanned so that you can be well agile about what gets priority. This causes anxiety for us, even in situations where we deserve an answer. . Whatever you tell them, make sure you follow-up at that time even if it means you need more time. What do 'real', 'user' and 'sys' mean in the output of time(1)? Do you think thats going to be enough time to get everything together? How possible is it to estimate time for programming projects? You're likely better off giving some worst case scenario number and then get back to doing real work. 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. You have other things to do from past assignments and you will have to The duration should be between twenty and thirty minutes. As you can see, you first need to calculate the Schedule Performance Index and Cost Performance Index. Thanks for your answer. Example: When is the completion date for room 3 curtains and trimmings? Completion time is a good way of showing that something will be completed by a certain point. Is the only way to say, "I can't say right now, check with me at [given time]" ? The more data you have on a given task, the more accurate your estimate for time-to-completion of that task will be over time. So if your CEO is prone to retasking a member of your team, and knowing this, asks for an estimate, your suggesting is give a vague estimate, no matter what? And then, go. The Workplace Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for members of the workforce navigating the professional setting. Does Cast a Spell make you a spellcaster? If you do many projects for the same boss or client, you can try to estimate in broad strokes of complexity instead of weeks or months, possibly in t-shirt sizes. Weight the first method more if the copy has a fairly consistent long-term average speed, even if it jumps around a bit locally. However, sometimes we need to know something by a certain date. @SergioAcosta the point is you use the analysis/estimation time to break down the task into smaller chunks. Katie is a passionate digital nomad working on her first book on the art of communication. That's right, you. 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. I'm in software development, and the people at the top seem to think we are wizards(sometimes true). To subscribe to this RSS feed, copy and paste this URL into your RSS reader. 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 . Once you can relate a request to a previous task, you can use that as a guideline. We have a safety issue with overhanging limbs from a large maple tree on 125 Maples property. Do EMC test houses typically accept copper foil in EUT? For the last semester of your degree, you need to do an internship. I want to know the specific end time. Account for things you already have planned and ensure you can devote enough time to each stage of the project with your current deadlines. They may also be worried about hurting your feelings or coming off as being confrontational. If you are unsure about how you are asking, try writing it out, or rehearsing your (polite) request for a deadline with somebody you trust to give you honest feedback. Suspicious referee report, are "suggested citations" from a paper mill? 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. I think the target time is a bit skewed. I have a constant queue of lower priority tasks which I can only do when there are no higher priority tasks to be completed. I've had car mechanics, plumbers, home builders, etc. Any alternative approaches to the two I have given. Make assumptions to fill in the gaps based on your best guess of what they want. Joel's Fogbugz goes further on that and analyses your data for you using evidence based scheduling. How long does it take to write good requirements? The problem here is this: let's say you and Joe made time estimates for the same task (but between two separate employees, unaware of both estimates at one time). Estimates for what? How to explain that it's hard to estimate the time required for a bigger software project? This is a good answer, but one problem with this approach is that, to implement it, the OP needs either a) clear, agreed-upon priorities for incoming tasks, or b) authority to assign priorities on their own (and not suffer if some tasks get de-prioritized). Because I have been on the job hunt, I believe I will soon have an offer. Were really sorry if thats going to cause any issues. It has worked out fine for stack overflow. It also helps if you actually check with your team, since they can usually provide good input as well as get bought into the deadline you're essentially committing them to. Then provide a wide range. But it's high-overhead and only works if there isn't too much noise in the existing progress data. Continue with Recommended Cookies. It only takes a minute to sign up. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. "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. Just reply that it will be done in six to eight weeks. Learn more about us here. If the requirements are not-clear, make sure you document your understanding of them and the functionality that you plan to deliver. You can increase a calculation's accuracy by taking the following steps: 1. Just be polite and ask if they had got around to it yet. 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. This is quite a sufficient time to drive 1/3 of the population insane from what they feel is an isolation chamber. They havent given me an exact time for it yet, but Ill keep trying! Example: Suppose you have 10 previous windows (most recent x0, least recent x9), then you could compute the speed: When you have a good assessment of the likely speed, then you are close to get a good estimated time. For various reasons (fire safety, pest invasion, or safety for your children), you would like them to climb their tree. Whatever method you use it needs to be quick. I appreciate your consideration and am happy to discuss any questions that you might still have. If you are dealing with an absentee owner or managed property situation, you may need to track down the property manager or owner and put your request in writing. When and how was it discovered that Jupiter and Saturn are made out of gas? doesn't always mean "Hurry up." 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. That sounds like a very adequate technique. ), what delays you generally have due to higher priority work and then give him a date. Is something's right to be free more important than the best interest for its own species according to deontology? Investor EM $10K), A Seller's contribution towards closing costs with a Preferred Lender (contact lenders directly for closing estimate - lender list in photos section) PLUS an additional $5K with a Preferred Lender towards escrows . If you have 6 projects lined up already, you simply refuse more. Welcome to Grammarhow!We are on a mission to help you become better at English. Document contingency. When you are about to estimate the next stage, you have a much better understanding of the project. A model might be a mental model, diagrams, or existing data records. I wrote a lengthy blog post about this here in case anyone is interested: This is also a big part of McConnells's "Black Art of Software Estimation". Model the system. I went into the code, figured out what lines needed to be changed, what other parts of the program it would affect, how much testing I'd have to do to ensure that things still worked. PMs would be responsible for this. How long should you wait for someone to answer a question? Sometimes (or actually always, because of Murphy's law) you will get asked for an estimate while you are still working that out. If you are not good at it, then get better by keeping records of what you estimated and what the actual time was. I dont mind an estimate, but I dont like the three-hour disparity between your numbers. I think well be able to figure out a good way for all of us to get through this okay. Or is there none? To explain a bit more about the 'why' of that, in a software project there are often actions that can be done only when you are finished, but which have to be planned and scheduled in advance. 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. It must have gone into my spam. Or: Oh, sorry. How can I avoid providing a deadline to others who insist on it? I didnt realize the project was going to take this long on your own. [1]: https://today.uconn.edu/2019/06/please-thank-impact-online-politeness/, [2]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233700639_Politeness_Myth_and_truth. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. No, I looked at it as letting him apply his money where he saw the most benefit. Complete Or Completed? Typically, I only wait 15-20 seconds for a response. Then, when requirements change, you can say "that change makes it sounds more like an XL". Never write "it will work on IE8 or higher", be specific. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. How to extract the coefficients from a long exponential expression? In 1 hour of detailed estimating, I'd determine it'd take 8.5 hours. But if you slip into the 180th or 210th day, not so much. @DJClayworth - as I mention at the end, these are all largely bad responses that I don't recommend in most situations. 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. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. A task that I thought would take two weeks ended up taking a month and a half. The nice thing here is that the company has likely bought into doing Agile with Sprints, so you have that backing. You have had no time to analyse requirements, workshop with stakeholders, validate assumptions. Hold on, what did you say the time frame was again? Its largely about your approach, as you can see, above. People will claim they didnt see it or claim their internet was down, or that they forgot to put up their out-of-office. 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. (The restaurant) requires a reservation. Having said that, "When will you be done?" In general, honesty is best, be upfront about it, and keep him in the loop. If you slip a little into the 7th month, you're still pretty accurate. Software Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professionals, academics, and students working within the systems development life cycle. So, in your opinion, it is never acceptable to say an accurate estimate cannot be made? Speed. Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most. Always provide a range (i.e. The preferred words are ETA, duration, and time frame. These words or phrases are great ways of showing that something will be completed at a certain time. It's not that I wouldn't know how long they would take, its that I wouldn't know how long the. Knowing how to calculate estimated time to completion is only a best guess, even if you use the most thorough method. Or to the whole estimate? You absolutely must give more information. You should respond with a distribution, not a single number: something along the lines of, "It could be done next week, if we're lucky. It'll be 8 weeks before this receives an automatic priority upgrade, and then it'll take a week or two in that queue until it's finished.". The open-source game engine youve been waiting for: Godot (Ep. Some great suggestions here on all answers. You need to complete this to graduate. Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. Meanwhile, Joe estimates 5 months. Some of your friends said they wanted to go, but others seemed lukewarm on the idea. want to be sure that I get your data to you in plenty of time, https://today.uconn.edu/2019/06/please-thank-impact-online-politeness/, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233700639_Politeness_Myth_and_truth. Wie sagt man hflich Ich warte auf Ihre Antwort? Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, and our products. (Off the record, I call these "guesstimates".). I was pulled onto another project.. Being on good terms with your neighbors is important, but sometimes it can be difficult. How to react to a students panic attack in an oral exam? The most common place for it to come up is in the military. 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. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. I don't expect that they could be made non-aggressive. This is unless you already fought this enemy. Its exasperating! Fixed scope and resources - but I am being asked for an exact release date. Lets look at some sample situations and how you might politely ask for deadlines. But "it'll be done when it is done" is only one step up from those. (Are you the same Kyralessa from the joel on software boards?). Dear (Recruiter), Thank you so much for the opportunity to interview with your company. The food sounds amazing. Identify a few past projects, and assign them the sizes S, M, L, XL. I have several projects going so want to be sure that I get your data to you in plenty of time.. 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.