How We Run Agile Teams Without Estimates.
My organization made the switch to Agile over 2 years ago. We’d had a bad track record for missing deadlines and poor quality. So, we took a team and started running sprints. We thought it had to be better than the present. Our management thought it sounded innovative. Only one of us had Agile experience. A few of us had read the books. We just ripped the band-aid off.
We had done tons of estimates before. They didn’t help.
Management asked for estimates. We avoided the topic: “You don’t do estimates in Agile. Estimates are beneath Agile!” “Agile is a philosophy. It improves communication, which improves quality, which improves speed.” They bought it. The truth was — we weren’t sure how to estimate in Agile. Or why. We had done tons of estimates before. They didn’t help. Humans suck at estimating things.
We weren’t sure how to estimate in Agile. Or why.
Two years later all of our teams are Agile. We still don’t use estimates. We argue. We negotiate. We challenge. We clarify. We communicate. And when we’re done, we commit.
‘Estimating’ comes up frequently — like a switch we haven’t flipped yet.
We have an innate knack for knowing how much we can bite off. Early on, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. We learned quickly. Now, priority disputes are resolved via negotiations versus estimate wars.
It’s difficult to articulate why this has worked for us — “we just know” sounds haughty. But here are five elements that I think make it work:
1. A clear vision of the product’s/project’s purpose
2. A team that believes in this vision because they helped create it
3. A culture of communication and dialog
4. Commitment to asking empowering questions, ie. ‘what would it take’ as opposed to ‘how long does this take’
5. Passion for building quality stuff
(#3 and #4 are the most difficult. They require trust.)
Management still wants us to ‘wave a finger in the air’ occasionally. But we’re good with that; confident in our ability to deliver on rough orders of magnitude.
As we gain more and more Agile experience, ‘estimating’ comes up frequently — like a switch we haven’t flipped yet. But I’ve yet to encounter the scenario to which estimates were the answer.
Maybe that will change. Until then, #NoEstimates.
