# ⇄ Ask for the estimate before you promise
Understanding · system · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/04-12-an-estimate-asked-for-after-the-decision-is-not-an-estimate.html

## What you are asking for

A commitment is announced to the customer. Then the team that has to deliver it is asked to estimate it.

## What the system hears

> "The date is already promised. They want a yes from us."

## What that produces

An estimate asked for after the promise is a request for confirmation. The team knows it, and either answers what is expected or keeps quiet.

The people who build see what the promise ignores: a dependency, a smaller version that would do, a capability already available. That information is worth a lot before the commitment, and almost nothing after.

An order of magnitude, the assumptions and the unknowns are enough for most ideas. The heavier the commitment, the deeper the look.

A call or a message commits as much as a contract. If you promise on the phone, you decided without the team. If the promise already exists, the estimate is still useful: it measures the gap. Deal with the gap, without making it the team's fault.

## The decision

→ Before you confirm a date, a cost or a scope, ask the people who will build it for the options and the unknowns.

→ If you have to answer sooner, say what is confirmed, what is not, and when you will come back.

→ Have the running load estimated with the build: upkeep is part of the cost.

→ If the estimate contradicts the promise, you renegotiate with the customer.

→ After delivery, compare the assumptions to reality, and adjust how you promise.

## To discuss

Which date did we promise recently before asking the people who will hold it?