The Top Ten Reasons Projects Fail (Part 8)

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The Top Ten Reasons Projects Fail (Part 8)

Frank Winters

September 29, 2003






Many people believe that estimating how long a task will take, especially if a team is involved, is a futile activity. They'd rather be told when something is needed then just get on with missing the date. With this logic, one way to avoid being fired for not delivering is to deliver something else--anything that might serve to keep the business person and the boss happy.

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Others believe that it is possible to estimate with accuracy and that to do otherwise is a form of project management incompetence. You might say that most members of this group are engineers of some kind, while those with no faith in the estimating process are not. The believers also tend to be a mite uptight while the non-believers are a bit more, shall we say, free thinking. It occurs to me that each group has something to learn from the other.

 

Is Estimation at Fault?

Maybe using the term "estimation" as a cause of failure does not delve deeply enough.



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