◢◢ Estimation and cost

Estimating how long a tech project will take and what the cost will be is hard (maybe impossible and dare I say foolish.)

Even if you think you have a good grasp on what needs to be built and how it effects the rest of the codebase you still have to do lots of extras to do before it can be marked done.

I'll say it now: Don't let anyone push you for a specific "done" date. It's impossible to give and it will drive stress for you and your team.

Here are some tasks that need to be done after the actual feature build. Remind your boss/colleague of these and see if they still think a date is viable 👇

Misc tech:

• Think about security and accessibility
• Add automated tests
• Figure out potential bottlenecks at scale
• Add monitoring, logging and general observability

Adoption:

• How to get the feature to users
• Writing documentation (internal + external)
• Communicating with new users
• Adoption tracking

Maintenance:

• Fixing bugs
• Customer requests
• Business needs
• Infrastructure / dependancy updates

The question to ask is, do we really need this (right now)?

Always ask this question. Don't be afraid to ask "why?" Don't let a project start without thinking about the above. Don't give a date unless your life depends on it.