92 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
2.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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id: 2026-02-04T08:07:00-0500
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title: 2026-02-04 08:07:00
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tags:
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- occupational
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- status/draft
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daily: "[[2026-02-04]]"
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---
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# 2026-02-04 08:07:00
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## Questions for ConEst
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[[conest|ConEst]]
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### Purpose of ConEst
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What is the purpose of ConEst?
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To comb for requirements [[pdi-bid-estimating|Bid]] missed?
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To create the CBOM for [[pdi-operations|Ops]]?
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Anything else?
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How do they rank in importance?
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Why are other departments so confused about ConEst's purpose?
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(Ops stakeholder auditing CBOM to [[joel-jansen]]: "missing screws")
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If we don't know, and Ops doesn't know, who does?
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That is, who defines our purpose?
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### ConEst Organization
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What freedom does ConEst have to change its process and deliverables?
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Suppose a plan to have Bid, with their request for ConEst,
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articulate certain requirements which they must have possessed to produce the bid estimate.
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Who would be involved in the change?
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Who would be the one to deny the request?
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If Bid's proposals are audited,
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why do they still cause ConEst constant headache?
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("local lighting control")
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***
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Estimators and seniors are biased towards imprecision
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because its tolerance reduces monotonous work,
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but the logical conclusion of such bias is a Bid estimate.
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Obviously there is an ideal compromise
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between 1:1 takeoff to install and a square foot budget
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that ConEst is intended to produce.
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Who is ultimately responsible
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for defining the position of that point on the spectrum?
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How is it defined?
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How is it expected to be communicated to seniors and estimators?
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#### Process Variation
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What is an acceptable level of process variance senior to senior?
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To my mind the answer ought to be "none"
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or at least "as little as possible",
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since our process benefits greatly
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from every bit of consistency we can maintain,
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saying nothing of the fact that there usually _is_
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a better option between two.
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What's being done to address the variance which exists?
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What's being done to prevent it from re-emerging?
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It is my belief that the most practical solution
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is the frequent rotation of estimators in senior teams.
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It is in the interest of estimators
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that their personal [[heuristics]] not depend on who they're working for,
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so they can be expected to call attention to inconsistency
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allowing it to be addressed permanently.
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The only other option I can imagine
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is to document _exact_ procedures for _every_ scenario,
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which is obviously foolhardy.
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### Less Important
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#### Proposal Transparency
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Am I alone in feeling that our proposals are deceptive
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beyond reasonable explanation?
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Would I be better of keeping my mouth shut about it?
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#### Incentives
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Bonuses based on awarded profit
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incentivize problematic [[stag-hunt|hare-hunting]] behavior.
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Has such behavior been observed,
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or has chief strategy been organization-aligned
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in spite of the incentive to defect?
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