--Better Estimating through Time Studies--

I'm haggling with a co-worker about how long it will take to do something (a repetitive procedure that is worked on weekly, throughout the course of the week). We are not getting anywhere with our haggling (of course we both think we are correct )...

So, I'm going to keep track of how long I spend on what this week (exciting, eh?) by recording the times in a spreadsheet. We'll take a look next week and see who was correct -- I mean which estimate was correct.

Sometimes keeping a quick journal (paper, Excel, whatever) of what time is spent on what is enough to get you a bit more perspective on how long (or little) you spend working on what. The recorded times usually surprises people.

Remember that the basis of estimates is previous experience. *Recorded* experience can help guide future estimates.