Manage Your Optimism

  Estimating   ProjectsAtWork  

A common human trait called “optimism bias” leads many project leaders to build unrealistic schedules and underestimate budgets. Buffers, retrospectives and peer reviews are some of the fundamental steps that can help you balance your optimism and produce better estimates.

I've always considered myself to a ‘glass is half full’ kind of guy. Early in my career, when a colleague asked me to manage a project that needed to be completed by the end of the next month, I said yes, of course. My workload wasn't bursting at the seams, the project was reasonably small, I had completed similar projects in the past, and the timescale sounded more than feasible. Except it wasn't feasible. Not. At. All.

The first warning sign should have been that the “briefing” was one of those casual desk-side conversation on the way to the printer. This is not a good way to start a project, even a small one. 

But really, the fault was mine. I had jumped ahead and committed myself and the team to something with the sketchiest of details, and I had blindly trusted that:

- the deadline that was given to me was an absolute requirement (it wasn’t)

- the deadline was realistic one with the resources we had (it wasn’t)

- my colleague had already established the above (he hadn’t)

- my experience of undertaking a similar project was …

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