Estimation
Steve Johnson posted a great article on prioritization. I firmly believe in many of his points and stances.
There’s one interesting point raised here dealing with estimation. Having 2-3 different groups of people determining what features go in and when they will be done simply serves to confuse. Especially when it comes to estimation - developers don’t always take in to account when everything else around a release or a feature will be done, simply because it’s not their job. Their job is to code, and estimate how long that code will take.
Sales and Marketing may like to hear that a feature is going to make it in to a release sooner rather than later, but that’s why those dates and estimates need to come from product mgmt and not development. The code is not the product - it’s the code plus everything else around it.
It would be nice if all documentation, testing, training, and other materials are always ready when the code is, but that hardly ever happens, especially when your team has a lot on the go. It should be baked in to the culture that product knows when things will be done, not development alone. Again, the answers might be “better,” but not necessarily correct. And nor should they have to be.
This is especially tricky when it comes to certain developers. When asked how long it will take to code 1 thing, one developer may say, “meh, couple of minutes” and another may say, “meh, couple of hours.” Again, these types of answers are off the cuff and should be treated as such. Especially when a customer is relying on the response to be correct.
It is extremely tough to estimate accurately. And, the best way to get better is to either a) hire people that can estimate really well or b) track actuals and then measure variance. The latter is tough when you don’t have formal time tracking systems in place.
The other alternative is to channel things through product, who should act as a centralization point on estimates, priorities, and keeping all components of a release timed and tracked. The answers may not always be favorable to Sales and other front-line facing functions, however, chances are, they are taking everything in to account as opposed to a single set of tasks / action items that must be executed prior to completion.
