Negotiation and padding in software project estimates
summary
A study claims negotiation and padding routinely reshape software estimates. Researchers spend three months observing four teams and conduct followup interviews. Methods include planning-poker based estimates and session observation. Findings show padding often buys contingency but also routinely hides technical debt and unfinished work, driven by power dynamics and layer mismatches. Recommendation is to surface developers’ reasons and translate refactoring or maintenance into customer-facing value so estimates reflect true effort.
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chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction
- 0:27Stakeholders
- 1:34Factors affecting estimates
- 3:05Observation studies
- 4:10Agile practices
- 6:40Risk management
- 7:25Hiding tails
- 8:24Adding
- 9:05Conclusion
- 10:52Outro
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