Client project manager calls me up one day

PM: hey can you make some precise estimates on some items for a project you’re not working on? It should be easy. It’s very similar to the project you ARE working on and it’s only a handful of user stories, mostly front end stuff. We´ll need this to be done by tomorrow night.

Me: um, I guess if it’s just a few simple items. ok

PM: great! I’ll let you know when you get access to the backlog.

Me: sounds good

Link to project is sent to me. Backlog contains over 20 user stories, most of which are backend related. And it doesn’t have much to do with my current project.

I contact PM: this isn’t exactly what you announced when I had you on the phone. If you want precise estimates with a minimum of design, this could take up to a week. I could however proceed to some ballpark estimates (poker planning) for starters if you need this quickly for your roadmap.

PM: no I need PRECISE estimates down to the hour for each item.

Me: ok then, it’ll take up to a week.

PM: 🤬🤬🤬. You told me it could be done in a day. I’m coming to realize your word can’t really be trusted.

Me: 🤦🏻‍♂️

The best estimations are the team based estimations. Do a planning poker, but don't agree on the average or median, just sum up all the estimations! 😉

Sometimes I feel guilty when someone has worked on some unquoted bit of work that they've invested some time in and everyone gives a low quote in poker planning - tend to give a little extra complexity points for them, gotcha back bro 👍

Sprint planning, the haiku:

“Is this worth four points?”
“I don’t know, what do you think?”
“Let’s just make it four”

What are your thoughts on sprint planning meeting with poker cards? ( Everytime we had those meetings, dev team points are always similar and rest of the people never)

Planning Poker - Bavarian Style

Rant

Scrum Planning Poker VS Teamleaders understanding of necessary time