I was speaking and teaching last week at the
PMI Regina's PDC (Professional Development Conference). I taught an estimation workshop and we had some illuminating discussions about what to do when people on your project can't estimate. We all agreed people tend to be either optimistic estimators, where they think the work will take less time, or they will be pessimistic, where they think the work will take longer. Rarely does someone change. Our discussion about what to do when someone consistently miss-estimates was the part where I saw servant leadership.
One project manager said, "I don't want to crush someone's hopes or ignore their hard work, but how do I explain that each and every assignment he's been late on and I just don't believe his estimate?" Good question.
People need feedback on their estimation, and a project manager might be able to help the person see where this estimation suffers from the same problem as the previous estimations.
That's where the servant leadership comes in. A PM who's not a servant leader will think, "Hmm, your last 5 estimates have been off by 50%. I'll add 50 %," and be done with it. But a PM who is a servant leader gives feedback and asks for a re-evaluation, "Joe, you might not know this, but your most recent 5 estimates have been under-estimated by 50%. I don't want to blindly pad your estimate. I'd like to help you learn to estimate better. Is that ok?"
If that's ok with Joe, now you have a way to help the other person learn to estimate better. I like breaking tasks into inch-pebbles (one- to two-day tasks that are either done or not done), starting with user stories, or using Delphi estimation as a way to help people learn to estimate smaller tasks and see when that work is actually complete. One guy I worked with said, "I always thought it just took a few minutes to set up a new branch. But when I tracked what I did, I realised it took me closer to an hour, by the time I was actually done and ready to start writing code and tests. Who knew?" Until he created inch-pebbles he had no idea how complex his work actually was.
Great project managers serve the project and the people on the project. They don't take estimates at face value, without understanding how the estimate came to be. But they don't autocratically change the estimate without providing feedback.
If you're a leader in the organisation, whether you're a team lead, a project manager, or a manager, think about how you can serve the project, the organisation,
and the people. You'll get better results if you remember the people.
