This article is part of the Challenges with estimations and possible solutions series.

At times I've been asked to give an estimate for a piece of work, where I wondered: are you sure this is the right question to ask? Sometimes at all, sometimes right now.

Ask yourself: How much are you willing to spend?

I've heard people ask for quotes on how much something it's going to cost them, and I've wondered: do you actually know how much you are willing to pay for it? Do you know where your limit is?

If you have a good idea of how much value solving a particular problem is going to be for you and you have a strong sense (or corporate-enforced) return-on-investment timeline, you should have an easy answer for your budget. If you have enough trust in your team and believe that you could unlock some or all of that value within that budget, the question of how much is going to cost seems wasteful to me.

Also getting to the cost estimate costs resources: time, social capital, and/or opportunity cost. If you know a budget, you could also ask as a quick check-in with the team if they believe the budget could be sufficient or not. Depending on the answer, you could then later still ask for some further research in case the answer is uncertain.

Ask yourself: Do I have anything else/better to do?

If there is only 1 work item with priority or urgency in the backlog, what would you do differently if you know the work is going to take a couple of days, weeks or months? If the answer is nothing, then do not waste resources asking for an estimate you are not going to use.

If you do have multiple candidates and you want to weigh opportunity cost, would cost be the deciding factor? If not, it's probably a better use of resources to invest in the actual deciding factors instead of wasting that on a cost-quote from the team.

Ask yourself: When am I planning to do this work?

Are you asking about an idea that is going to happen somewhere between now and the next couple of weeks? Or are we talking about work somewhere almost half a year from now?

Estimates have a shelf-life because things tend to change over time. People leaving or joining a team, portfolios changing, new technologies popping up, interdependencies changing, etc. All factors that can impact the cost estimate. The more time between the moment the estimate is given, and the moment the work is actually being done could play a role in the usefulness of the estimate.

Consider asking for a low commitment, inaccurate 'order of magnitude estimation when asking for things very far into the future. Save detailed descriptions of work breakdowns and estimations for each item for short-term projects.

And if planning for doing a bid for a contract, see if the client is open for a time-materials contract.

Ask yourself: Is this in line with my/our goals?

Do not lose sight of your goals. If the proposed work for the team does not align with your current goals, and you have a long backlog: do you really want to commit resources to this right now? Do you want to burden the team with an estimate question, that would distract them from pursuing our current goals? Or is this one of those times where you should tell the person "No, not right now.". Because if you shouldn't be doing it, there is no point in asking how much it's going to cost.