Estimations - they are at the very core of PM activities, the ability to estimate, the reliance others have on our estimations, our continuing white whale pursuit of improved estimations all work to empower us as masters of the universe, to state our predictions of the future. And yet…they are all magical thinking at worst, and expectations-setting goal posts, ever receding into a distancing horizon, of our slog through projects and communications, at best. And then we report and update, in an endless vortex of communications, analysis and ... shame. Should we even have them in our discipline? What causes us to get them wrong? What role the tension of accountability and commitment vs the need to reflect likely return on investment for those stakeholders that expect value from projects? Listen in to our new roundtable format as Mike Hannan and I cohost with special guest Hilbert Robinson a wide ranging discussion on the role of estimations. That we need them becomes apparent. What we discover is estimations' unrealistic nature is actual a symptom of a series of other issues deep within our PM and organizational practices. Trust, focus, dilution, estimations…Oh My!

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