5 reasons to refuse assessments

In our company, we do not appreciate the work. Neither in hours, nor in points, nor in green crocodiles. Not at all appreciated. If you have long wanted to abandon the estimates, but did not know why, here are five reasons.

1. You will not spend time on assessments

Estimates take time. Even if you evaluate in abstract points, playing poker , it still takes a decent amount of time. And what if you want to improve the accuracy of the estimates? Then you collect data, analyze the data and discuss the results of the analysis. All this also takes a decent time. But think, do you really need estimates? Often it is waste . It is better to spend time on something really useful for the product.

2. It will be easier for you to explain to the management why this was soooooo long

If you do not have ratings, you can communicate with management without fear. You can calmly explain why the work took so much time, what problems arose and how they were solved. You can prove that you are doing everything possible for the early release of cool functionality.

If you have a rating, the management is tempted to resort to the argument “what the fuck? You promised me to make this feature by the end of the month! “It automatically makes you justify yourself.
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3. You do not make promises that are difficult to fulfill.

Most people are optimistic by nature. As confirmed by English scientists, this is a built-in attribute. Therefore, most people, even very experienced ones, give overly optimistic estimates. During my career I have never met a programmer who gives pessimistic estimates. Maybe I was not lucky and you have such.

Managers resort to more or less complex formulas (or very simple ) to adjust the team's scores. You can spend a lot of time choosing the right odds for this particular team. But as a result, people will not believe you, but you change their assessments (although you do it quite rightly). Moreover, you still end up with inaccurate estimates. Do you need it?

4. You do not put pressure on the team

For many teams, Score == Deadline. It's horrible. What are you doing to meet the assessment? Do you sacrifice quality? Do you approve the first architectural solution? Do not gloss? All this leads to sad decisions that end users will not love. It is almost always better to spend more time, but to release something really useful and convenient.

5. You focus on important things.

Imagine that you have finished planning poker and rated all the stories in a big feature. For example, it turned out 1000 points. This assessment automatically labels the label “ carefully ” on this feature. 1000 points is a lot. The feature is huge. Huge features do difficult and long. There is a big temptation to make a dozen features smaller. They are not so scary. But this can be a bad decision, because this feature is really very important for the product.

If you do not evaluate, you just start working on what is now extremely important. It's simple.