It's interesting the author mentioned estimating but said they are not very good at it yet. I have read somewhere else that what distinguishes a senior engineer from a junior engineer is exactly the skill in estimating work.
As I said in another reply, it really depends. If its a task that I have done before and new code, then I can give a fairly good estimate. If its something new, I have no idea. If it's on a monstrous old codebase, then there are a lot of unknowns to add into that.
And most people expect you to do such estimates on the spot.
No one can estimate worth a damn. With experience you realize how terrible all estimates are — unless you are estimating something you have exactly done before, which is more likely with more experience. Everything I have done in my career was mostly unrelated to anything done previously, so estimating would be as effective as using dice.
collyw|7 years ago
And most people expect you to do such estimates on the spot.
Aeolun|7 years ago
coldcode|7 years ago