Chapter 23: Politics, Negotiation, and Problem Solving

Overview

Applicability of Techniques in This Chapter
	Principled Negotiation
What's Estimated	Size, Effort, Features, Schedule
Size of Project	S M L
Development Stage	Early-Late
Iterative or Sequential	Both
Accuracy Possible	N/A

Philip Metzger observed decades ago that technical staff were fairly good at estimation but were poor at defending their estimates (Metzger 1981), and I haven't seen much evidence that technical staff have gotten better at defending their estimates in recent years. This chapter describes the reasons for the difficulty of getting an estimate accepted and an approach to help you negotiate estimates successfully.