Welcome to the FogBugz Knowledge Exchange

Question

4

1

Hi,

Two scenarios...

I have over estimated a case. As I resolve is, should I be adjusting my current estimate to match the hours worked on that case so the remaining time goes to zero?
Same question with an under estimate?

How do these things affect EBS?

Thanks, Simon

flag	asked Jan 19 2010 at 9:24 Simon 43●2

db · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-19 14:18:37Z UTC

1

EBS compares your estimates to the actual time spent on tasks in order to generate better predictions of how long future tasks will take you to complete. So, for example, if you are generally an optimist and under-estimate how long tasks will take you, EBS will learn about this over time and take that into account when it's predicting ship dates. A more complete discussion on what EBS tries to do and how it works can be found over here.

To answer your question though, generally you should try to enter your best guess at an accurate estimate when you start working on a case and then leave it alone. You can adjust the estimate if you like, but if you fairly consistently over or under estimate tasks, it's almost better not to (given how EBS works).

answered Jan 19 2010 at 14:18

db♦♦
11.4k●7●13

Thanks db. Specifically, my query was to do with when you resolve a case that has been completed. If there is still time remaining showing against this case as things went quicker than you first thought, is that a problem? If so, should you make your current estimate match the time spent so remaining shows 0? Thanks, Simon – Simon Jan 19 2010 at 15:28

1

When you CLOSE a case the initial estimate is used to update the estimators track record... not the current estimate. It's difficult to go entirely by the probabilities that EBS gives you; I balance those numbers against the actual "Time Remaining" that the Case list gives. If you want that field to make sense, you have to update your Current Estimate, but keep db's comment in mind and don't do that too often. If work is complete, close the case. This is good for EBS and it takes it off the active case list so you don't see the time remaining. – PJM Jan 19 2010 at 17:15

I have Dev, QA and Prod environments. The developer Resolves the case when development is complete. This lets us know that we can deploy the code to QA for testing (we open a test sub-case to track testing effort and result). The case will remain open until deployed to Prod, at which time it will be verified and then Closed. From a development manager point of view, I "expect" to see zero hours remaining for a Resolved case. The only way this can happen is to modify the Current Estimate to match the Elapsed Time. This feels wrong... is it? – Patrick Crocker Oct 3 at 18:40

Should I be adjusting estimates as cases are resolved?

1 Answer