Speed = Measuring

Someone posted on social media that they felt estimating work was a waste of time.

Estimating can be a waste of time if you’re spending a lot of time on it. I do not feel estimating needs to be an exhaustive, cover every base effort.  However, if you want to go faster, you will not be successful without it.

I am that confident in saying it—to go faster successfully, part of your process must include estimating. My reasoning is pretty simple: If you do not estimate, what will you be measuring to see if the team is successfully going faster?

Take this example. One week the team completes one work item. The next week, the team completes five work items. Does this automatically mean the team was working more efficiently and therefore faster? Absolutely not! That single work item might have been a much larger body of work. Without an estimate, you cannot identify anything to measure one week against another.

One reason people oppose estimating is due to the inaccuracy of estimates. They can be off. I have two takes on that:

First, it is good to compare actual effort to estimates.

Second, you can adjust estimates based on the historical accuracy of previous work. 

Again, you do not need to put in a tremendous amount of effort. If you see a pattern of estimates coming up short, start adding some time to your next ones, and vice versa.