Yep, I’ve come to realize that part of my trouble to rationalize the No Estimates movement is that they are UnCanadian. There are some things that become a part of you when you live and Canada and especially in the Canadian Prairies. Let me explain.
Schedule
As Canadians in the middle of the continent, schedules define our lives. It snows in late October and is bitterly cold December, January, February, and March. If I didn’t have a schedule that let me know spring will arrive in late March I am sure I would go crazy. In many ways, a schedule is the only thing holding our psyche together when we are shoveling 30 centimetres of snow with a windchill of -40. Like how can it possibly snow when it is that cold? We as a nation as obsessed with weather forecasts. If Meteorologists turned up tomorrow and said they were not forecasting anymore beyond today, I would go to some dark, dank corner of my mind in February.
I need a schedule. I need it to give me hope. 🙂
Maps
When you live in a country this vast, a map is a requirement. Trust me, the last thing you want to do is get caught in some small town with out a Tim Hortons in the middle of winter. So as a consequence, I have this inherent need to know where I am in relation to where I thought I would be. In all seriousness, getting caught in the middle of winter not making your destination is a matter of life and death. Getting caught out in the elements will get you killed. More than anything we respect the power of nature.
So I think this Canadian life has ingrained on me that I need a map of the projects I work on. I need it to guide me and in some very real way, I feel lost and vulnerable without it.
Soccer
Canada is not a Soccer nation. Never will be. Oh sure we have some very talented players now coming up and we will continue to get better, but Soccer will never enthrall this nation like Hockey. Why? I’d hazard a guess is because part of the charm of Hockey is the combination of the skill, tenacity, and toughness. Hockey is the only sport that has a ‘diving’ penalty – where it is a penalty if you are trying to fake an infraction. Yes, I know that Soccer now has a ‘simulation’ penalty, but if you can’t even label the penalty as something shameful, how committed are you to changing the behaviour?
To be blunt, adopting No Estimates because estimates are hard to do and error prone, seems to be like falling down in the penalty area just to get a free kick. Yes, it might be easier and make projects go smoother for developers, but is it right?
No thanks. I’ll carry on, drink my Tim Hortons, fight through tackles and get better at estimating. I’d rather lose the right way than win on a penalty kick.
Agile PMO 