Ivan

Mind your language

This could also be called "verbal communication in the small".

There are some words that are misused quite frequently; their misuse can cause misunderstanding which can lead to unhappiness. When I hear these words misused, I have to sit down and have a cup of tea.

Here are some examples in the context of project planning:

"accuracy" instead of "precision"

Question: what's the population of UK? A precise answer is 57,675,328. A more accurate answer is 60,000,000. Capiche?

"quote" instead of "estimate"

Ever had building work done? A quote is what you will (or at least should) pay (fixed price). An estimate is a guide to how much you'll pay - it might be more, might be less (time and materials). Developers will give you an estimate for the cost of some piece of work. If you want a quote, you need to explain what that means, otherwise you'll get an estimate no matter what you ask for. A quote will always be larger than an estimate if the person giving the quote knows what the difference is (or if you ask for a best case/worst case pair of estimates it will be something like the worst case estimate.) With builders (and outsourcers), the quote will also depend on how much they want the work and what they think rivals will bid. Software developers working on an internal system generally aren't concerned with such things.

"value" instead of "cost"

The value of some piece of work is, roughly speaking, how much money it will save or how much revenue it will generate (minus how much it cost to produce). An estimate from developers of how much a piece of work will cost is just the cost - not the value. The value might be high and the estimate for the cost low, or vice-versa. Cost and value aren't necessarily related - use the right term or people will be confused.