Yes, “Gut Feel”  doesn’t look nice to use in public. Is there a better term, I learned one today, to find out read on…

In casual conversations to indicate something is very easy, we say it is not “Rocket Science”. I feel only a Rocket Scientist (like our President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam) can say for certain whether one is or not. This term is more often used in Software Development Lifecycle to indicate a module that the person feels is not difficult to build – I am a little sceptical whenever I hear this (I am also guilty of using it). I am sceptical because we are not talking metrics to indicate the complexity but relative terms, which vary person to person.

Anyways, what is definitely “Rocket Science” is to do Software Estimate. Scientific Methods to estimate do exist and they should be used always – which I am a firm believer when validated by experience inputs and risk analysis. Deliberations on this are for another day.

Most often in the industry we hear the excuse there is not enough time to do a scientific analysis and we have to go with “Gut Feel” estimates. Today while conducting an Interview, I learned a new term for saying this from the candidate and it is “Expert Judgement“. Sounds Professional, isn’t it!

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