When do you enter an estimate for a FogBugz case? [closed]

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I like to use case estimates in FB, but am not sure what is the best practice for when to enter an estimate.

Do I enter an estimate as soon as the case is assigned to me and I first view it? Or do I do some initial investigation first to determine what the problem is and THEN enter an estimate once I've figure out what's wrong?

If I enter en estimate right away, my estimate could be wildly off, since initially I don't know if the problem will require a开发者_StackOverflow中文版 simple one-line change or a major re-write. (or maybe it's user error and there is no change needed at all)

But if I look into the problem first I might spend an hour or two just figuring out what's wrong before I know enough to give a good estimate. And does the time I spent figuring out the problem count towards my estimate?

Would like to hear what method others who use FogBugz use for estimating.

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It's a (somewhat learned) gut feeling kind of thing, and I try and estimate as soon as possible.

Most times I read a case and have a rough idea of how long it's going to take, so just enter the estimate there and then.

Other times I'm not quite sure what is going to be involved, maybe it's an area of the product I'm not familiar with or haven't been in for a while, so I'll take a couple of minutes to have a quick scout. If I'm struggling to get a good handle on it after five minutes I'll make a gut estimate based on what I've seen already and how complex I think it may be, erring on a larger estimate to include further research.

In the end it all balances out, sometimes you instantly estimate an hour for something that takes two days, but other times something scares you into estimating a week but takes just a few hours. After a while your estimates start to get within a +/- 20% or better, which is generally OK over a number of cases.

The best thing is to get the estimate in as soon as you can so that any red flags can be raised for the project, and as you get into a case properly and realise your estimate is off by a big margin, then simply update your estimate.

With this method you might find yourself thinking you're over-estimating, but you'll soon find that you aren't once you have a few months' worth of estimate history behind you that shows things balancing relatively well.