If your colleagues are regularly giving unrealistically optimistic estimates, and you are judged worse for giving realistic estimates, clearly your superiors don’t care for the accuracy of the estimates all that much. You’re trying to play a fair game in a situation where you will be rewarded for doing the opposite of that.
Personally I’ve had good mileage out of offering to lie to the people asking for estimates. When asked for estimates during a sprint, or the likes, and if I sufficiently trust the people involved I would say something like “You are asking us to do X, which I think will take 2 months. My colleagues are giving estimates of 2-3 weeks, but the previous times they gave estimates like that the project took 6-10 weeks. I’m committed to the project, and if you want to hear that we can do it in 3 weeks I’m happy to tell you that, but I don’t think we will finish it within 2 months.”
If after that you still find you are being punished for giving realistic estimates, consider not telling the truth?
If your colleagues are regularly giving unrealistically optimistic estimates, and you are judged worse for giving realistic estimates, clearly your superiors don’t care for the accuracy of the estimates all that much. You’re trying to play a fair game in a situation where you will be rewarded for doing the opposite of that.
Personally I’ve had good mileage out of offering to lie to the people asking for estimates. When asked for estimates during a sprint, or the likes, and if I sufficiently trust the people involved I would say something like “You are asking us to do X, which I think will take 2 months. My colleagues are giving estimates of 2-3 weeks, but the previous times they gave estimates like that the project took 6-10 weeks. I’m committed to the project, and if you want to hear that we can do it in 3 weeks I’m happy to tell you that, but I don’t think we will finish it within 2 months.”
If after that you still find you are being punished for giving realistic estimates, consider not telling the truth?