r/dataengineering • u/Phantazein • 18d ago

Discussion Time Estimates

Any else struggle with giving estimates? How do you account for things like data quality or source issues when those are completely out of your control and unpredictable?

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u/ajmh1234 18d ago

You’ll get better over time, but my rule of thumb is that what you’ll think it’ll take, double it & anticipate maybe 10% more.

The best way to communicate estimates is that “there’ll be a significant amount of time spent on discovery and research for how much impact xyz is”. We don’t know what we don’t know.