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copied!<p>You can't know when everything will be done and still follow an agile process. Even if you work very hard to estimate everything, the larger the work the larger your error percentage. Most estimates for projects of medium size end up being 2x off, and larger ones up to 10x off.</p> <p>Instead, I would ask the customer for a functional target date. The conversation goes like this:</p> <p>You: When do you need these features?</p> <p>(C)ustomer: When can you deliver them?</p> <p>You: Let's frame up the boundaries first. If I delivered all these features in 10 years, would that be too late?</p> <p>C: Of course.</p> <p>You: If I delivered all these features tomorrow, would that be soon enough?</p> <p>C: Of course.</p> <p>You: What about 1 year from now?</p> <p>C: That's still too late.</p> <p>You: 3 months?</p> <p>C: That is just a little too late, more like 2 months. We have to be ready to use this with our Management team in January.</p> <p>You (think): Ah ha!</p> <p>You: We can't deliver all these features in 2 months. I think we could deliver these 4 stories in 1 month, and these 3 stores in the next month.</p> <p>C: We'll we really need feature X for January.</p> <p>You: OK, if we add feature X we'll need to remove a feature. Which don't you need?</p> <p>C: We can do with only part of feature Y.</p> <p>You: OK. We'll take this list and work up a more detailed estimate.</p> <p>C (think): Ha! I got what I wanted!</p> <p>I've found over and over that the underlying reason for estimates and planning "everything" is that they want a promise of delivery of something by a date. Working through the target date works much better because it:</p> <ol> <li><p>Forces the customer to help make the trade-offs</p></li> <li><p>Exposes the real reason for estimates</p></li> <li><p>Reduces the number of things to estimate.</p></li> <li><p>Helps identify which features are important to which sprint.</p></li> </ol>

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