ServiceNow development work estimations

Cris AD · ‎01-03-2021

Hi, I have been asked to provide estimations of time for my developments in ServiceNow.

Most of my tasks are customizations for new forms and workflows, dashboards, configure tables and columns, etc and incidents solutions.

Please help me to know how to provide them the effort time estimate to implement solutions considering 1 resource will work on it.

Is there any template to calculate time effort?

Regards

@Chuck Tomasi

The SN Nerd · ‎01-04-2021

Many books have been written on techniques to estimate work. It really depends on your situation and what works for you.

There is no Best Practice template for estimating effort in ServiceNow. I would suggest the following high level points

Estimate based on how long development tasks have taken in the past
- Be aware of the planning falacy - people are often optimistic in their estimation and neglect to consider prior performance
- Start measuring how long it actually takes you to do development tasks
- Use existing measurements to determine your estimates
Use techniques to estimate consistently
- Use the same methodology for estimating across your team to ensure consistency
- Consider breaking down estimate into development tasks and units, with an effort per task, using previous estimates to determine effort
Leverage wisdom of the crowds
- Groups often provide more accurate estimates than individual experts
- Seek estimation estimates from multiple developers (e.g. planning poker) to get the least bias estimation
- You've provided no specific examples, so we can't help you here

I personally use an estimation matrix, with development tasks and effort. It is my companies intellectual property so I cannot share it, it was just built in Excel using dropdowns and simple formulas.

ServiceNow Nerd
ServiceNow Developer MVP 2020-2022
ServiceNow Community MVP 2019-2022

View solution in original post

Allen Andreas · ‎01-03-2021

Hello,

This is where you would give your estimation back for your level of effort.

Sounds pretty self-explanatory, honestly.

We can't give you an estimate as it's individual specific.

They're just asking you how long it would take you...

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Cris AD · ‎01-03-2021

Hello Allen,

Thank you for respond, Yes, I understand that it is a particular measurement of each developer, but my question is more focused on knowing if there is any matrix of values to calculate the estimated time in hours?
as well as when they calculate the points or the hours of the stories, etc.

Since I have previously provided my estimates but they do not seem adequate, they tell me that they must be more realistic. So I need a measurement chart or something, that's why I was encouraged to ask here.

Thanks in advance.

Allen Andreas · ‎01-04-2021

Hello,

There is no generic ServiceNow developer level of effort calculator. You are more than welcome to search the forums, but that would only bring up a small thread from about 8 years ago that doesn't really contain any information to assist you.

The same goes with calculating the points or hours of the stories as some companies point things differently.

Please tell us what a scenario example was...and what you gave as your answer. Since you've already done this and "they" told you it was not realistic (which sounds very odd that whatever you said was so off base that they (non-developers, etc.) could tell you it was non-realistic (unless there was specific deadlines coming up and you said you couldn't meet it).

-So why don't you give us your scenarios of what they're asking you to do

-Then tell us what you told them your LOE was

-Then tell us why you think it would take you that long

-Then tell us your ServiceNow experience level

Then...we could "maybe" be able to assist.

Please mark reply as Helpful/Correct, if applicable. Thanks!

Please consider marking my reply as Helpful and/or Accept Solution, if applicable. Thanks!

Cris AD · ‎01-04-2021

Thank you very much for answering,

Most of the things I do are customizations, I fix catalog workflows that carry database query scripts, the last time I made an order guide with more than 20 catalogs that included several checkboxes and references fields, catalog client scripts, etc, I use AD activities that add and remove users to groups, I also resolve incidents (this is where I don't know what is the proper resolution time, 1, 2, 3 days ?, basically it is the same: fix WF, BR, Client scripts, etc), my experience as a developer is 4 years, previously they gave me the final delivery date and I delivered it finished, but now I must give my estimate of time from the beginning, that is why I would like to learn to estimate time.
Sometimes could be new developments such as forms with special validation buttons, fields, pocederues that includes script includes, queries, calculated fields for questions, new fields in tables, etc.
I know that there is no developer calaculator effort, but I would like to establish a parameter to be able to calculate how long it can take to solve a new development or an incident, failing that I think I can build on previous developments and establish an average parameter.

thanks again