idea
Estimation is no precise science. It varies on a number of factors:
- Feature complexity: is it incremental or new, how much logic is required, how much fine-tuning will be necessary, are the results observable
- Technical clarity: is the high-level technical solution clear, how much unknown is there, how many assumptions are being taken and how likely are they
- Spec stability: is the feature well defined, how likely will the specs change while developing
- Technical complexity: is the team familiar with technology, is the technology stable, is the existing tech well suited for the feature, is it easy to change the technology
- UI: does it require reports, UIs, will this require localization, how easy is the UI technology
- Testability: Is the feature testable, how complex is it to automate testing, will it require bug bashing and group testing
- Infrastructure: is it incremental, does it require new infrastructure, is it brand new.
- Operations: does the feature require new telemetry, does it require new user-support procedure, how is the feedback flowing to the team.
- BI: Is there an existing BI pipeline, does it need any additional measurements and reports.
- Scale: how many users will there be, how big of an impact is it on their workflow
- Integrations: is it self-contained, does it require new integrations, are the new integrations with existing or new interface. Is approval required for usage of some of the features.
- Organization and dependency: is the feature self-contained within the team, does it require other teams, are these identified and committed, how far are they in the organization.
- Data migration: is it relying on existing data, does it require to update existing data, move data from a store to another, update in-situ
- Release management: is it substituting an existing system, do both systems need to co-exist, does it require backfilling from the old system, does it require a progressive rollout
- Maturation: does the feature require maturation in production, and adjustments based on that? Is it released through testing, is there an existing a/b test framework or something similar.
- Compliance: will it require privacy, security, legal or compliance validations, will it require to build specific processes to handle compliance