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Cognitively, there is none! On the surface, there are stages that other answers have provided, and by all mean stick to them as a checklist to know where you are, and to be confident when others a...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38173 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/38173 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
_Cognitively_, there is none! On the surface, there are stages that other answers have provided, and by all mean stick to them as a checklist to know where you are, and to be confident when others ask you "how is your work?". But ideas just come and go. Today you will be so exciting for figuring out a perfect connection between two previous ideas, and next week you will feel stuck again. And when you finish and ask for feedback, you will realize that you have to work again. And another feedback, and work again. Of course you will finish one day, but it's almost _impossible_ to anticipate how long it will be actually finished. And when you do it, you _definitely_ need to multiple that number several times (the [Cone of Uncertainty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cone_of_Uncertainty)). In software development the actual duration is 4 times or 1/4 of the first estimates.