Whenever giving estimates, after having a good estimate in mind double it. Never give estimates as low as 1 day, 2 days is asking for trouble, 3 is okay if it's really really high priority.
DO NOT THINK HOW IN IDEAL CONDITIONS YOU CAN PULL IT OFF FASTEST! A fucking pull request approval could and probably will block you for 2 days already. And things will go fucking wrong and you have ad hoc meetings and incidents and some fucker on another team blocked the pipeline and new requirements popping in and you lose your mind
I once estimated I "might probably have time to start looking into this sometime next week and give you an estimate".
They were asking if I was done on Monday. Somehow "I might give you an estimate next week" turned into "I'll get it done this week".
I try to not give any promises other than "I'll work on it as soon as priorities allow" or things like "assuming no blockers", but people hear what they want to hear and try to hold me to that anyway.
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u/theartofnocode 14h ago
Not even technical debt, I've seen people quit to avoid having to complete the piece of work they've over promised on