zlacker

I think it really depends on how teams use their estimates. If you're locking in an estimate and have to stick with it for a week or a month, you're right, that's terrible.

If you don't strictly work on a Sprint schedule, then I think it's reasonable to have high variance estimates, then as soon as you learn more, you update the estimate.

I've seen lots of different teams do lots of different things. If they work for you and you're shipping with reliable results then that's excellent.