title: Who should give high-level project estimates?
body: <p>I've just come from a discussion about who is best placed to give estimates on a given piece of work.</p>
  
  <p>At a detailed level I'd always say that the best estimate comes from the person who actually has to do the work as they have the full understanding and this gives them complete buy-in to the , however at a higher level of abstraction (i.e. at overall project level) I'm not so sure.</p>
  
  <p>I'm reminded of chapter 5 in Peopleware which gives the results of an Australian study from 1985 - best link I could find is <a href="http://javatroopers.com/Peopleware.html#Chapter_5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>.</p>
  
  <p>I'm particularly interested in your focus here - are you answering as a developer, architect, prject manager or whatever?</p>