I made my effort estimates by thinking about how long similar tasks had taken me in the past and factoring in how familiar I was with the technologies involved. For example, when estimating the time to deploy the final project to Vercel and set up pgAdmin, I considered the learning curve of connecting Next.js with a Postgres database and the time it might take to troubleshoot environment variables. I also discussed expectations briefly with team members to gauge difficulty. My estimates leaned on the cautious side in case I ran into unexpected problems.
Yes, there was definitely a benefit to estimating in advance, even if the numbers weren’t always accurate. Having an estimate gave me a starting point for how to plan my day and where to allocate time within the week. It also helped the team as a whole see which tasks would likely require the most effort and plan accordingly. It made it easier to distribute workload and avoid overcommitting. Even when the estimates were off, they helped us reflect afterward on what went wrong or right in our planning.
Tracking actual effort was very helpful. It showed how much time was really being spent on tasks and highlighted which areas took longer than expected. This helped us understand where we needed more support or time in the future. It also gave us a clearer picture when reporting on our contributions. The only downside was the occasional distraction of remembering to start or stop the timer, especially when switching between coding and non-coding work. But overall, the benefits of insight and accountability outweighed the inconvenience.
I used a timer on my phone to track coding effort. I would start the timer when I sat down to code and pause it if I took a break or shifted to non-coding work like documentation. For non-coding effort, I used my best judgment, estimating based on how long I spent writing, planning, or communicating. I think my tracking was fairly accurate, especially for focused coding sessions. There might be small gaps in non-coding work estimates, but I tried to be honest and consistent.
The overhead was minimal. At first, it felt like an extra step to remember to track everything, but after a few tasks, it became part of my routine. It didn’t noticeably take time away from working on the project. The only slight slowdown was when switching between types of work or needing to input the times into our tracking spreadsheet, but it wasn’t enough to interfere with progress. In the long run, tracking effort helped me stay more organized and aware of how I was spending my time.
This essay was written with the help of ChatGPT for brainstorming, grammar checking, and organizing thoughts.