Comments on: Problems of Estimation http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/ Building Product Management from the Ground Up by Paul Young Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:21:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Switching Teams | The Productologist: Exploring the Depths of Product Management http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/comment-page-1/#comment-1638 Switching Teams | The Productologist: Exploring the Depths of Product Management Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:15:26 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/#comment-1638 [...] and its role and effects on Product Management on many famous Product Management blogs: CrankyPM, Product Beautiful, All About Product Management (there are many more, just click on any of the blogs on my Blogroll [...] [...] and its role and effects on Product Management on many famous Product Management blogs: CrankyPM, Product Beautiful, All About Product Management (there are many more, just click on any of the blogs on my Blogroll [...]

]]> By: Paul http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/comment-page-1/#comment-1294 Paul Thu, 24 Jan 2008 22:08:08 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/#comment-1294 You're right, GUI changes are basically impossible to estimate because you can go through the entire design process, build it, and then find out that it failed - only by putting it in front of a user. I for one would love to know where product slips happen at an aggregate level. Even better would be to segment it by hardware companies vs. software vs. services, and/or by vertical e.g. consumer electronics vs. networking vs. Web 2.0. You’re right, GUI changes are basically impossible to estimate because you can go through the entire design process, build it, and then find out that it failed – only by putting it in front of a user.

I for one would love to know where product slips happen at an aggregate level. Even better would be to segment it by hardware companies vs. software vs. services, and/or by vertical e.g. consumer electronics vs. networking vs. Web 2.0.

]]> By: Tom Grant http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/comment-page-1/#comment-1293 Tom Grant Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:34:22 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2007/12/10/problems-of-estimation/#comment-1293 Good suggestions, all. I'd even expand the list of difficult-to-estimate projects to user experience changes. They're not as technologically dense as, say, re-building the core libraries of a complex middleware application from scratch. However, it's just as hard to estimate a UI overhaul, since you can't really tell from the beginning how many different tasks or use cases are going to need a thorough drubbing. How valuable would it be to get hard data, across the industry, on the real sources of product slips? I think all of us in the PM profession can tell good stories, but at an aggregate level, are there any patterns? I'm asking, in part, because I now have the luxury of putting my time into studying these sorts of questions. Good suggestions, all. I’d even expand the list of difficult-to-estimate projects to user experience changes. They’re not as technologically dense as, say, re-building the core libraries of a complex middleware application from scratch. However, it’s just as hard to estimate a UI overhaul, since you can’t really tell from the beginning how many different tasks or use cases are going to need a thorough drubbing.

How valuable would it be to get hard data, across the industry, on the real sources of product slips? I think all of us in the PM profession can tell good stories, but at an aggregate level, are there any patterns? I’m asking, in part, because I now have the luxury of putting my time into studying these sorts of questions.

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