When I was doing more project work I outright refused to give estimates, explaining that I could come up with a random figure that&#x27;s so low they won&#x27;t believe it or so high they won&#x27;t like it, and in any case the figure would have nothing to do with when the project would be complete.<p>Instead I offered broad time ranges that would narrow down to more accurate ones as work progressed. The managers who had to report those upwards didn&#x27;t always like that first but they grew to appreciate how the dynamic worked across the project timeline. In the beginning, they didn&#x27;t know how long because nobody knew how long. Well, maybe definitely more than a month and definitely no longer than a year, and &quot;it all depends&quot;. But every week we knew more and they knew more, and the time margins could be shrunk incrementally as soon as difficult tasks turned out to be not so difficult. So the more progress the better everyone knew how we were doing.<p>That is one gratifying slide to completion but I do admit it probably doesn&#x27;t work for every team or company.