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** We apologize for technical difficulties - This video starts a bit into Noel's talk. **

What makes some projects succeed and others fail? Often the problem is that the stakeholders in your project have stopped trusting one another. The root of this problem is not always technical, but can be that your team has structured its workflow in a way that is making your life more difficult and making it hard for stakeholders to understand and accept your progress.

As developers, we tend to dismiss project process as a "soft skill", right up until the moment you hit a deadline and realize you needed a better structure in place six weeks ago. Estimation is a particularly fraught process, and tension between developers and stakeholders will often manifest there first.

You may think that ugly project management is a fact of life and there's nothing you can do about it, but that's just not true. Agile processes are filled with small ways you can increase trust and improve the way your team works.

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The video titled 'Estimation and Trust-Driven Development' presented by Noel Rappin at the Ancient City Ruby 2015 event focuses on the importance of trust among project stakeholders and how effective estimation practices can enhance project success. Rappin highlights the critical role of communication and structured workflow in mitigating issues that arise during project development.

Key points discussed in the video include:  
- **Challenges of Estimation**: Rappin elaborates on how external pressures can lead developers to provide overly optimistic estimates, contributing to project problems when realities do not match expectations. 
- **Importance of Ranges**: Instead of providing precise figures, he advocates for communicating estimates as ranges to better represent complexities and uncertainties in projects. For instance, saying a project might cost between $150,000 and $200,000 rather than a fixed amount. 
- **Factors Influencing Estimates**: The estimation process must consider various elements, such as task complexity, developer skill level, time allocation, and necessary project management. Rappin emphasizes the significance of accurately assessing these factors to prepare reliable estimates. 
- **Relative Comparisons**: Developers can effectively estimate the relative complexity of various tasks using agile methodologies, such as story points, allowing teams to establish a baseline for future work. 
- **Routine and Consistency**: Regular patterns in task time and developer workflow provide a stable ground for making sound estimations. Rappin suggests that maintaining an understanding of these routines can enhance reliability in project forecasting. 
- **Flexibility of Estimates**: Due to the dynamic nature of projects, estimates should remain flexible. Rappin suggests breaking down complexities into manageable sections to accommodate shifts and changes during the development cycle. 
- **Building Trust through Communication**: Finally, Rappin emphasizes that open communication among team members and stakeholders fosters trust, which is fundamental to project success and collaboration.

In summary, Rappin’s talk underscores the notion that better estimation practices, aligned with clear communication and trust-building among stakeholders, lead to improved project outcomes. The approach to estimation should focus on realistic ranges and adaptability, rather than fixed predictions, to navigate the uncertainties of development effectively.

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