Research is subject to constraints of money, time, and resources, but is not normally estimated in the sense that software industry people would use the term.

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bpt3 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Yes, yet estimates are still made. The author of the article didn't use some highly formal definition of estimation, didn't imply one, and seems to be focused on devops (not software development) as a practitioner.

Estimates are difficult, and in unhealthy environments are weaponized against developers. That doesn't mean they're unnecessary or impossible.

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awesome_dude 2 days ago | parent [-]

I think that the replies I am getting are demonstrating why developers have estimates used against them - people forget that they are estimates, and they also forget that when new information comes to hand that invalidates that estimate a completely new one may need to be created to take into account the new data.

If developers (or anyone giving estimates) discovers that the initial estimate was based on faulty information then they need to push that information back to whomever they are reporting it to (Team Lead, Product Owner, Manager, customer, angel investor...). The receiver of that information then needs to decide on how to react according to the changes.

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bpt3 2 days ago | parent [-]

Yes, agile is a reaction to spreadsheet driven development and some very dumb ways of tracking progress towards completion and managing work in general.

In my experience, people don't forget they're estimates, they just want to force developers to meet whatever they agreed to that's most convenient for management.

If you want to fight back against that, my experience has been that giving terrible estimates or refusing to give them at all will not result in more autonomy or authority.

	▲	lmm a day ago \| parent [-]
		> If you want to fight back against that, my experience has been that giving terrible estimates or refusing to give them at all will not result in more autonomy or authority. In my experience giving terrible estimates or refusing to give them at all is the least bad course of action. It wastes less of your time than any realistic alternative, it does no noticeable damage to the business or your own position, and the people who want to paint you as just trying to avoid accountability were going to find a way to do that anyway.

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awesome_dude 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Research is estimated, sometimes those estimates are hilariously bad (Computer vision is easy, a summer research for a student should be enough), but more often than not it's "We expect that this research will take someone doing a Ph.D approximately 3 - 5 years to do"

The entire premise of a project is "Look at this, with the intent to find X, and, if it's not possible, break it down so that we can create more projects to work toward that goal" which is an estimate, or a breakdown into sub projects that also come with estimates.