Estimating Poorly Defined Agile Projects

From Twitter today came the following definition: Epicac – In software development with Scrum, a feature so horribly defined it makes you vomit when asked to estimate how long it will take.

I know anything can be estimated and that using ranges will generate a mean estimate and range.  No need to vomit with estimating rigour.  SEER has knowledge bases and sizing methods to size a Single Scrum.  I recommend ALWAYS preparing an estimate of the overall program: effort, schedule, cost, risk.. Then using SEER for the difficult tiny Sprints.  I always cringe when a project says “we can’t estimate.  We will just tell you when we are done”  That is not agile, that is a cop-out.  How many stakeholders will approve of such a project?

PS I just Googled the word Epicac.  At least one definition refers to a computer that wrote poems and fell in love.  Glad I missed that one in the past.

Related posts:

1. Estimation & Agile Development… Plan and Control Agile Projects
2. Agile Estimating User Stories
3. Mapping Agile Principals to SEER for Software (SEER-SEM)
4. Peaceful Coexistence of Agile Development and CMMI
5. Combining Agile and Traditional Development

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