There is even a comment perfectly illustrating that some people will interpret all information as an assurance (and insist that it is your fault that they do so), unless you explicitly tell them not to:
I will consider your estimate to be an educated projection based your experience, skills and qualification. [...] if you made an estimate, you need to stand by it. [...] if you say a time then that time becomes yours to live and die by. You said it, you own it. I recalculated my projections, my finances and my resources based on it. You should have said a range of estimates but you didn’t. Estimates becomes deadlines because of your own fault.
If a Doctor gave an estimate to a paitent of 6-12 months of life remaining and the actual amount was 1 month we would investigate why the Doctor was so incorrect. If a builder estimates X tons of concrete and the requirements are double we do not blame the owner of the house. [...] I would be perfectly comfortable raising a legal counter-charge against a contractor for poor estimates.
If your estimate is off you are either fired, charged or will fail to be re-hired. When a carpenter makes an estimate of between X and Y inches he is expected to be right. I apply the same scrutiny to developers regardless of voodoo regarding statistics. If you cannot make accurate estimates you are either not very good at your job (I doubt that) or are unwilling to accept responsibility.
[If you respond to this attitude by padding your estimates] you would be out of a contract for padding estimates by a ridiculous factor margin. Not to mention a counter-charge against you or your agency for misconduct. [...] don’t think for one second a good development team can hide behind the word estimate or any agile principle as some sort of sandbag against criticism. [...] It sounds like you have no confidence in your own abilities.
(I guess this person wouldn’t even have to fire me for making a wrong estimate; if I worked with them I would happily quit.)
Seems like that guy has failed to grasp the fact that some things are naturally more predictable than others. Estimating how much concrete you need to build a house is just way easier than estimating how much time you need to design and code a large novel piece of software (even if the requirements don’t change mid-project).
Related: StackExchange: Why are estimates treated like deadlines?
There is even a comment perfectly illustrating that some people will interpret all information as an assurance (and insist that it is your fault that they do so), unless you explicitly tell them not to:
(I guess this person wouldn’t even have to fire me for making a wrong estimate; if I worked with them I would happily quit.)
Seems like that guy has failed to grasp the fact that some things are naturally more predictable than others. Estimating how much concrete you need to build a house is just way easier than estimating how much time you need to design and code a large novel piece of software (even if the requirements don’t change mid-project).