On project estimation

Tom writes about How Long is a Piece of String?, which addresses one of my main frustrations with software development; estimates and how project managers' and stakeholders deal with them.

So, how long is a piece of string? ... It's a pretty silly question, isn't it? But would you believe that questions like that are asked all the time regarding IT projects? And what is even more amazing is that people actually give answers to such vague questions and then they make important business decisions based on them.

Far too often I see people wondering around in disillusionment as estimates are not hit. This can sometimes be exaggerated on agile projects as management get more feedback than they're used to, and some panic.