Software developers, your free time should not be a buffer
Press enter or click to view image in full size
I can’t count how many times in my life (or even in a year) I’ve heard people say: “I will get it done in the evening…”, “I will get it done by Monday morning…”
I think every developer (including myself) is guilty of saying something along those lines at least once in their careers. There is no doubt that estimations are hard — it might even be the hardest thing to get done within software development.
That is why it is very important to communicate delay and manage expectations accordingly.
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems when giving an estimate has to do with conflicting expectations between parties.
In general, when a person asks you when the task will be completed, they are not referring to when the actual coding will be done but rather when the task will be deployed to production or when it will at least be at the UAT stage.
There is a massive difference between coding by yourself versus working with a team, which is why this post will be focused on organizations and not necessarily on the workflow of freelancers.
In general, when working with teams, there are extra steps that the code must go through…