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This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to estimate software-intensive systems using traditional and agile development methods. The reason for this resource page is the lack of understanding of how to estimate, the urban myths about software estimating, and the fallacies that estimating is not needed, when developing software, in the presence of uncertainty, when spending other peoples money. Estimating Probable System Cost,” Stephen A. MORE
Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Project, Products, and Processes , Richard D. Stutzke is a starting point for estimating software projects. I recommend it for anyone starting out in the estimating business all the way to seasoned veterans. Any estimating process requires discipline and repeatability to produce accurate and precise results. The estimate can also be produced parametrically, empirically, or through a modeling and simulation. MORE
This knowledge starts with Reference Class Forecasting which is a method of predicting the future (cost, schedule, technical performance) by looking at similar past situations and their outcomes. Reference class forecasting predicts the outcome of an action based on actual outcomes in a reference class of similar actions to that being forecast. Where do you find these Reference Classes ? . Your domain may have NO reference classes. link] Cost Estimating Tools. MORE
The following content is based on the whitepaper, “Bigger Than a Breadbox: 10 Tips for Better Project Estimates, Part 2,” written by Jerry Manas. From all the previous six parts of this series, it should be clear that effective estimation is a primary driver of project success, resource planning, and portfolio alignment. Part 1: Improve Project Estimates and Escape Crisis Mode. Use Horizon-Based Estimates. Part 2: Improving Project Estimates is all About Direction. MORE
We start with 5 steps for how to put a proposal budget together and then Edoardo shares a worked (fictional) example to show you what the budget would look like once it is completed. A proposal budget is similar to a project budget, but with a very different goal. A project budget is meant to guide you step-by-step throughout the project phases, and is meant to be changed and adapted (within limits, of course) to what happens during the project itself. MORE
Plenty of teams still use hourly estimates for complex work. Relative estimation: takes less time, focuses on team collaboration i.o. Teams are still often required to give cost estimates, as well as do billing on actual hours spend. “Better roughly right, than precisely wrong”. MORE
The project manager estimates the resource requirement and creates open positions that get fulfilled by the resource manager. People, processes, and technology, also referred to as the golden triangle, are essential for successful project implementation. MORE
To be successful, they must be able to evaluate and allocate resources necessary to complete deliverables on time, with quality, and without exceeding the budget. Take adequate time to make reasonable and realistic estimates: Perfection is nearly impossible to achieve in resource management, but you should still aim for it. Once project priorities have been clarified, take adequate time to estimate schedules and budget. References: Kerzner, H. MORE
How to budget for the unknown unknown risks Have you ever had a budget crisis due to the lack of a management reserve? You look at your budget, but you don’t have the funds to handle this work. You can — assuming that your organization supports the concept of reserves — create a management reserve when estimating the cost of your project. The contingency reserve is added to the project budget and is part of the cost baseline. MORE
Estimation locks down choices early through upfront t decision making, #NoEstimates preserves options. A real option is a choice made available with business investment opportunities, referred to as “real” because it typically references a tangible asset instead of a financial instrument. Real Options can be used to address the gap found in traditional capital budgeting methods. Why Guessing is not Estimating and Estimating is not Guessing. MORE
Project estimation techniques help project managers accurately estimate essential elements, such as cost and scope , within their projects. What are project estimation techniques? An estimate is a rough calculation of something. Why are project estimates important? MORE
This is an immutable principle that impacts planning, execution, performance measures, decision making, risk, budgeting, and overall business and technical management of the project and the business funding the project no matter the domain, context, technology or any methods. Are we being effective with our budget - that is are we earning our budget. This knowledge can be used to assess and re-estimate the effort required to complete the project. References. MORE
There is a discussion of the conjecture that estimates are a waste, estimates can't be done, estimates are evil, estimates must be stopped immediately. To be informed how to estimate in this broad range of domains, problems, and impacts — education, experience, and skill are needed. No credible decision can be made in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the cost, schedule, and technical performance of that decision. How and when to re-estimate. MORE
or have been in the project management field for years and could use a refresher, here is a reference sheet that covers the basic financial terms and concepts on the project management landscape : Actual Cost (a.k.a. Budgeted Amount : The total amount of funding allocated to a project. Budgeted Cost (a.k.a. Budget at Completion): A rolled-up amount that is calculated by multiplying planned work by hourly cost rates, and then adding non-labor budget costs as applicable. MORE
That’s why planning out your project budget is so important: it’s the lifeblood of the project. But first, we need to define what a project budget is. What Is a Project Budget? It’s used to estimate what the costs of the project will be for every phase of the project. MORE
For example, the project plan will go into the budget, the communication plan and much more. It’s all part of the initiation phase of a project, but is often referred to throughout the life cycle of the project. Budget and Timeline. Project Budget Template. MORE
I work in the Software Intensive System of Systems domains in Aerospace, Defense, Enterprise IT (both commercial and government) applying Agile, Earned Value Management, Productive Statistical Estimating (both parametric and Monte Carlo), Risk Management, and Root Cause Analysis with a variety of capabilities. References below. . This is from one of our presentations from a International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association meeting on the same topic. MORE
Since all risk comes from uncertainty - reducible (Epistemic) and irreducible (Aleatory), estimating is a foundation of all we do. There is no discussion of the conjecture that estimates are a waste, estimates can't be done, estimates are evil, estimates must be stopped immediately. To be informed how to estimate in this broad range of domains, problems, and impacts - education, exp[erience, and skill are needed. Gow to avoid common estimating mistakes. MORE
There's a recent post titled Four Fallacious Reasons to Estimate. It lists the usual suspects for why those spending the money think they don't have to estimate how much they plan to spend when they'll be done producing the value they've been assigned to produce for that expenditure. And like many posts and tweets about estimating, it's made from this point of view, not the business point view, not from the point of view of those paying the developer. MORE
The GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide has 12 steps. You're late and over budget before you start, and have lowered the probability of technical success. Agile encourages change, but those changes must be recorded so a reference class can be built of time. Agile Capabilities Decision Making Estimating Governance Management Performance-Based Project Management® Project Management Requirements Risk Root Cause Analysis Scheduling MORE
How many of those projects came in over budget? When John asked the project sponsor how the $100,000 was estimated, but he never got a clear answer. His early estimate — an analogous estimate — was $125,000 with a range of accuracy between -25 percent to +50 percent. John shared the estimate with the sponsor and said that he would provide a more detailed estimate after completing a work breakdown structure (WBS) with the project team. MORE
So the first part is following standard estimating principles. which states clearly and concisely that decisions can be made (in the presence of uncertainty - which is ALWAYS present on software development projects - without estimating the impact of those decisions. Past performance, reference classes, parametric models, Monte Carlo simulation, method of moments , and other estimating processes are standard practice. Does that mean we don't need estimating? . MORE
One of the escape clauses of #Noestimates is to re-label Forecasting as NOT Estimating , It is forecasting, based on empirical data. This is in comparison for estimating purpose for a theoretical model that produces data, parametric from empirical or theoretical models that produce data. In all cases the data is used to estimate some outcome in the past, present, or future. When that estimate is about the future, it can also be referred to as a Forecast. MORE
It may reference a separate business case or return on investment analysis. The most common source of late project completions is not poor estimating or a lack of risk management, it is late starts. They may also have been terrible at estimating and blind to common threats, but late starts are very common. The uncertainty associated with our estimates needs to be reflected (to some degree) in our schedule. Agile Project Management Estimating Planning Risk Management MORE
I've seen estimates abused by bad managers, so let's NOT estimate and that will fix the behavior of Bad Managers." While the human behaviors are real and observable, conjecturing that decisions can be made in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the outcome of those decisions, there is no principle to support that conjecture. The first thing to do is NOT fall for the fallacy that NOT Estimating will fix the behavior of the bad manager. MORE
What is a ROM estimate used for? A rough order of magnitude estimate is used to give you a very high level view of potential project costs. But in reality, we rarely have the time or luxury of being able to provide that level of estimate at the earliest stage of project. MORE
Still plenty of teams use hourly estimates for complex work. Relative estimation: takes less time, focuses on team collaboration i.o. Teams are still often required to give cost estimates, as well as do billing on actual hours spend. “Better roughly right, than precisely wrong”. MORE
We start with 5 steps for how to put a proposal budget together and then Edoardo shares a worked (fictional) example to show you what the budget would look like once it is completed. A proposal budget is similar to a project budget, but with a very different goal. MORE
40 - Estimation is a Problematic Practice of Companies Doing Dangerous Things. A #Noestimates advocate makes the claim that having a ±10% accuracy for estimates of cost and duration is a dangerous thing. With what appears to be NO understanding of how to estimate, this author ignores the processes used in developing products or services in the presence of uncertainty. Define Reference Classes for those Capabilities and the Features that implement them. References. MORE
But there’s little your project sponsor, your client, or their Finance Director care about more than your budget and how closely you can stick to it. Instead, you must act with determination to understand project cost management and implement all the tools at your disposal to control costs and bring in your expenditure on budget. What is not negotiable is the budget. Monitoring and controlling project expenditure to adhere to your budget. Determine Budget. MORE
You might also here artifacts referred to as templates, documents, outputs or deliverables, but in all cases they relate to the work of managing the project, not the thing you are creating as the output of the project. MORE
As a Project Manager, doing project ESTIMATION is a key responsibility but how often are we able to deliver the project under budgeted cost and time? What will help in this scenario would be the right understanding of estimation tools and techniques. There are many techniques for project estimation like Bottom-Up Estimation, Parametric Estimation and Analogous Estimation. Comparative details of Analogous and Parametric Estimation. MORE
There are two reasons why Project Estimation is a big deal for project managers. And second, poor estimates are often a primary reason for a project cost or schedule over-run. So, in this article, we’ll take a careful look at project estimation, to help you learn how to master the art and craft of doing it well. What is Project Estimation? Why is Project Estimation so hard? The Estimation Knife Edge. Methods and Tools for Project Estimation. MORE
Despite our best intentions, human beings are terrible at estimating how long a project or task will take to complete. Most major project management issues can be traced back to poor time estimates. Poor estimating. Poor estimating. You guessed it, poor estimating. MORE
The conjecture that we can make decisions in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the impacts of those decisions is without any principles that can be tested beyond personal anecdotes of I know people who spend other peoples money without providing estimates. Here's some reading to help understand why its bunk and how to learn to estimate in the presence of uncertainty in order to make better decisions. Software Estimating Taxonomy. Estimating Accuracy. MORE
Cost management is the process by which one plans and manages the budget of a business or project. In the case of a project, it helps the project manager estimate what the project will cost and set in place controls by which they can reduce the chance of the project going over budget. MORE
At the #NoProjects #NoEstimates workshop it was mentioned that focus on "on-time, on-budget naturallt leads project to meet those goals and forget the value/benefits side of the equation. The First Step in Any Project is to grossly Underestimate its Complexity and Difficulity and its companion from the same author Finishing a project "on budget and on time" is not an indication of success. And, my customer is equally as clueless about the need to estimate as I am. MORE
the structure and size of a project; what tasks block the flow; the reason why projects “have a fever”; how much time a team has to “break the fever”; the amount of work remained; correspondence to budget limits. Examine “total selected”, “expected”,“remaining”, “burned”, and “approved” project estimates measured in “man-hour” values on the top of the menu window. The budget view demonstrates whether you’re in the limits of the scheduled budget (budget constraints). . MORE
You look at your budget, but you don't have the funds to respond to these risks. Let's explore management reserves for projects, who controls them, and how to estimate the reserves. The project manager adds the contingency reserve to the project budget, resulting in the cost baseline. MORE
Estimates. An Estimate is a value inferred for a population of values based on data collected from a sample of data from that population. The estimate can also be produced parametrically or through a simulation (Monte Carlo is common, but Method of Moments is another we use). . Estimates can be about the past, present, or future. We can estimate the number of clams in the Pleistocene era that are in the shale formations near our house. Estimate to Complete. MORE
Estimation is part of project management. . The most important estimates for the project manager are related to time and cost. . Since it is easier to estimate small tasks, these estimates are often calculated and performed as point estimates, for example, a task will take 3 days. Or perhaps as an estimate with two-point ranges. Each work activity in a discrete model will have an estimated duration - a scalar number, usually measured in days. MORE
Project Risk Coach
MARCH 2, 2021
You look at your budget, but you don't have the funds to respond to these risks. Let's explore management reserves for projects, who controls them, and how to estimate the reserves. The project manager adds the contingency reserve to the project budget, resulting in the cost baseline.
ProjectManager.com
DECEMBER 3, 2019
That’s why planning out your project budget is so important: it’s the lifeblood of the project. But first, we need to define what a project budget is. What Is a Project Budget? It’s used to estimate what the costs of the project will be for every phase of the project.
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Girl's Guide to PM
MARCH 14, 2021
What is a ROM estimate used for? A rough order of magnitude estimate is used to give you a very high level view of potential project costs. But in reality, we rarely have the time or luxury of being able to provide that level of estimate at the earliest stage of project.
Project Risk Coach
SEPTEMBER 19, 2016
How to budget for the unknown unknown risks Have you ever had a budget crisis due to the lack of a management reserve? You look at your budget, but you don’t have the funds to handle this work. You can — assuming that your organization supports the concept of reserves — create a management reserve when estimating the cost of your project. The contingency reserve is added to the project budget and is part of the cost baseline.
Online PM Courses
JUNE 3, 2018
There are two reasons why Project Estimation is a big deal for project managers. And second, poor estimates are often a primary reason for a project cost or schedule over-run. So, in this article, we’ll take a careful look at project estimation, to help you learn how to master the art and craft of doing it well. What is Project Estimation? Why is Project Estimation so hard? The Estimation Knife Edge. Methods and Tools for Project Estimation.
Girl's Guide to PM
MARCH 13, 2020
We start with 5 steps for how to put a proposal budget together and then Edoardo shares a worked (fictional) example to show you what the budget would look like once it is completed. A proposal budget is similar to a project budget, but with a very different goal.
Herding Cats
NOVEMBER 27, 2016
Estimates. An Estimate is a value inferred for a population of values based on data collected from a sample of data from that population. The estimate can also be produced parametrically or through a simulation (Monte Carlo is common, but Method of Moments is another we use). . Estimates can be about the past, present, or future. We can estimate the number of clams in the Pleistocene era that are in the shale formations near our house. Estimate to Complete.
Herding Cats
MAY 7, 2019
This blog page is dedicated to the resources used to estimate software-intensive systems using traditional and agile development methods. The reason for this resource page is the lack of understanding of how to estimate, the urban myths about software estimating, and the fallacies that estimating is not needed, when developing software, in the presence of uncertainty, when spending other peoples money. Estimating Probable System Cost,” Stephen A.
Herding Cats
NOVEMBER 3, 2016
Since all risk comes from uncertainty - reducible (Epistemic) and irreducible (Aleatory), estimating is a foundation of all we do. There is no discussion of the conjecture that estimates are a waste, estimates can't be done, estimates are evil, estimates must be stopped immediately. To be informed how to estimate in this broad range of domains, problems, and impacts - education, exp[erience, and skill are needed. Gow to avoid common estimating mistakes.
iZenBridge
NOVEMBER 26, 2019
As a Project Manager, doing project ESTIMATION is a key responsibility but how often are we able to deliver the project under budgeted cost and time? What will help in this scenario would be the right understanding of estimation tools and techniques. There are many techniques for project estimation like Bottom-Up Estimation, Parametric Estimation and Analogous Estimation. Comparative details of Analogous and Parametric Estimation.
Herding Cats
OCTOBER 5, 2018
There is a discussion of the conjecture that estimates are a waste, estimates can't be done, estimates are evil, estimates must be stopped immediately. To be informed how to estimate in this broad range of domains, problems, and impacts — education, experience, and skill are needed. No credible decision can be made in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the cost, schedule, and technical performance of that decision. How and when to re-estimate.
|
Planio
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
Despite our best intentions, human beings are terrible at estimating how long a project or task will take to complete. Most major project management issues can be traced back to poor time estimates. Poor estimating. Poor estimating. You guessed it, poor estimating.
Planview
JANUARY 31, 2019
The following content is based on the whitepaper, “Bigger Than a Breadbox: 10 Tips for Better Project Estimates, Part 2,” written by Jerry Manas. From all the previous six parts of this series, it should be clear that effective estimation is a primary driver of project success, resource planning, and portfolio alignment. Part 1: Improve Project Estimates and Escape Crisis Mode. Use Horizon-Based Estimates. Part 2: Improving Project Estimates is all About Direction.
Girl's Guide to PM
FEBRUARY 1, 2017
We start with 5 steps for how to put a proposal budget together and then Edoardo shares a worked (fictional) example to show you what the budget would look like once it is completed. A proposal budget is similar to a project budget, but with a very different goal. A project budget is meant to guide you step-by-step throughout the project phases, and is meant to be changed and adapted (within limits, of course) to what happens during the project itself.
Herding Cats
MARCH 20, 2018
Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Project, Products, and Processes , Richard D. Stutzke is a starting point for estimating software projects. I recommend it for anyone starting out in the estimating business all the way to seasoned veterans. Any estimating process requires discipline and repeatability to produce accurate and precise results. The estimate can also be produced parametrically, empirically, or through a modeling and simulation.
Scrum.org
SEPTEMBER 16, 2020
Still plenty of teams use hourly estimates for complex work. Relative estimation: takes less time, focuses on team collaboration i.o. Teams are still often required to give cost estimates, as well as do billing on actual hours spend. “Better roughly right, than precisely wrong”.
Herding Cats
AUGUST 27, 2017
There's a recent post titled Four Fallacious Reasons to Estimate. It lists the usual suspects for why those spending the money think they don't have to estimate how much they plan to spend when they'll be done producing the value they've been assigned to produce for that expenditure. And like many posts and tweets about estimating, it's made from this point of view, not the business point view, not from the point of view of those paying the developer.
Scrum.org
SEPTEMBER 16, 2020
Plenty of teams still use hourly estimates for complex work. Relative estimation: takes less time, focuses on team collaboration i.o. Teams are still often required to give cost estimates, as well as do billing on actual hours spend. “Better roughly right, than precisely wrong”.
Herding Cats
JULY 16, 2017
The GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide has 12 steps. You're late and over budget before you start, and have lowered the probability of technical success. Agile encourages change, but those changes must be recorded so a reference class can be built of time. Agile Capabilities Decision Making Estimating Governance Management Performance-Based Project Management® Project Management Requirements Risk Root Cause Analysis Scheduling
Online PM Courses
SEPTEMBER 3, 2018
But there’s little your project sponsor, your client, or their Finance Director care about more than your budget and how closely you can stick to it. Instead, you must act with determination to understand project cost management and implement all the tools at your disposal to control costs and bring in your expenditure on budget. What is not negotiable is the budget. Monitoring and controlling project expenditure to adhere to your budget. Determine Budget.
The IIL Blog
SEPTEMBER 17, 2018
To be successful, they must be able to evaluate and allocate resources necessary to complete deliverables on time, with quality, and without exceeding the budget. Take adequate time to make reasonable and realistic estimates: Perfection is nearly impossible to achieve in resource management, but you should still aim for it. Once project priorities have been clarified, take adequate time to estimate schedules and budget. References: Kerzner, H.
Clarizen
AUGUST 2, 2018
or have been in the project management field for years and could use a refresher, here is a reference sheet that covers the basic financial terms and concepts on the project management landscape : Actual Cost (a.k.a. Budgeted Amount : The total amount of funding allocated to a project. Budgeted Cost (a.k.a. Budget at Completion): A rolled-up amount that is calculated by multiplying planned work by hourly cost rates, and then adding non-labor budget costs as applicable.
Herding Cats
MARCH 24, 2016
One of the escape clauses of #Noestimates is to re-label Forecasting as NOT Estimating , It is forecasting, based on empirical data. This is in comparison for estimating purpose for a theoretical model that produces data, parametric from empirical or theoretical models that produce data. In all cases the data is used to estimate some outcome in the past, present, or future. When that estimate is about the future, it can also be referred to as a Forecast.
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 9, 2017
How many of those projects came in over budget? When John asked the project sponsor how the $100,000 was estimated, but he never got a clear answer. His early estimate — an analogous estimate — was $125,000 with a range of accuracy between -25 percent to +50 percent. John shared the estimate with the sponsor and said that he would provide a more detailed estimate after completing a work breakdown structure (WBS) with the project team.
Leading Answers
MARCH 14, 2019
It may reference a separate business case or return on investment analysis. The most common source of late project completions is not poor estimating or a lack of risk management, it is late starts. They may also have been terrible at estimating and blind to common threats, but late starts are very common. The uncertainty associated with our estimates needs to be reflected (to some degree) in our schedule. Agile Project Management Estimating Planning Risk Management
Herding Cats
OCTOBER 11, 2016
I work in the Software Intensive System of Systems domains in Aerospace, Defense, Enterprise IT (both commercial and government) applying Agile, Earned Value Management, Productive Statistical Estimating (both parametric and Monte Carlo), Risk Management, and Root Cause Analysis with a variety of capabilities. References below. . This is from one of our presentations from a International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association meeting on the same topic.
Girl's Guide to PM
MARCH 18, 2021
You might also here artifacts referred to as templates, documents, outputs or deliverables, but in all cases they relate to the work of managing the project, not the thing you are creating as the output of the project.
Herding Cats
JANUARY 23, 2019
This knowledge starts with Reference Class Forecasting which is a method of predicting the future (cost, schedule, technical performance) by looking at similar past situations and their outcomes. Reference class forecasting predicts the outcome of an action based on actual outcomes in a reference class of similar actions to that being forecast. Where do you find these Reference Classes ? . Your domain may have NO reference classes. link] Cost Estimating Tools.
Herding Cats
FEBRUARY 9, 2019
40 - Estimation is a Problematic Practice of Companies Doing Dangerous Things. A #Noestimates advocate makes the claim that having a ±10% accuracy for estimates of cost and duration is a dangerous thing. With what appears to be NO understanding of how to estimate, this author ignores the processes used in developing products or services in the presence of uncertainty. Define Reference Classes for those Capabilities and the Features that implement them. References.
Epicflow Blog
NOVEMBER 5, 2019
the structure and size of a project; what tasks block the flow; the reason why projects “have a fever”; how much time a team has to “break the fever”; the amount of work remained; correspondence to budget limits. Examine “total selected”, “expected”,“remaining”, “burned”, and “approved” project estimates measured in “man-hour” values on the top of the menu window. The budget view demonstrates whether you’re in the limits of the scheduled budget (budget constraints). .
ProjectManager.com
DECEMBER 4, 2019
Cost management is the process by which one plans and manages the budget of a business or project. In the case of a project, it helps the project manager estimate what the project will cost and set in place controls by which they can reduce the chance of the project going over budget.
Herding Cats
JUNE 2, 2017
So the first part is following standard estimating principles. which states clearly and concisely that decisions can be made (in the presence of uncertainty - which is ALWAYS present on software development projects - without estimating the impact of those decisions. Past performance, reference classes, parametric models, Monte Carlo simulation, method of moments , and other estimating processes are standard practice. Does that mean we don't need estimating? .
ProjectManager.com
MARCH 4, 2021
For example, the project plan will go into the budget, the communication plan and much more. It’s all part of the initiation phase of a project, but is often referred to throughout the life cycle of the project. Budget and Timeline. Project Budget Template.
Herding Cats
FEBRUARY 9, 2018
I've seen estimates abused by bad managers, so let's NOT estimate and that will fix the behavior of Bad Managers." While the human behaviors are real and observable, conjecturing that decisions can be made in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the outcome of those decisions, there is no principle to support that conjecture. The first thing to do is NOT fall for the fallacy that NOT Estimating will fix the behavior of the bad manager.
Herding Cats
APRIL 13, 2018
Estimation locks down choices early through upfront t decision making, #NoEstimates preserves options. A real option is a choice made available with business investment opportunities, referred to as “real” because it typically references a tangible asset instead of a financial instrument. Real Options can be used to address the gap found in traditional capital budgeting methods. Why Guessing is not Estimating and Estimating is not Guessing.
Herding Cats
AUGUST 22, 2018
At the #NoProjects #NoEstimates workshop it was mentioned that focus on "on-time, on-budget naturallt leads project to meet those goals and forget the value/benefits side of the equation. The First Step in Any Project is to grossly Underestimate its Complexity and Difficulity and its companion from the same author Finishing a project "on budget and on time" is not an indication of success. And, my customer is equally as clueless about the need to estimate as I am.
Herding Cats
FEBRUARY 23, 2016
The conjecture that we can make decisions in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the impacts of those decisions is without any principles that can be tested beyond personal anecdotes of I know people who spend other peoples money without providing estimates. Here's some reading to help understand why its bunk and how to learn to estimate in the presence of uncertainty in order to make better decisions. Software Estimating Taxonomy. Estimating Accuracy.
Herding Cats
MARCH 4, 2017
This is an immutable principle that impacts planning, execution, performance measures, decision making, risk, budgeting, and overall business and technical management of the project and the business funding the project no matter the domain, context, technology or any methods. Are we being effective with our budget - that is are we earning our budget. This knowledge can be used to assess and re-estimate the effort required to complete the project. References.
Girl's Guide to PM
MARCH 22, 2021
The project manager estimates the resource requirement and creates open positions that get fulfilled by the resource manager. People, processes, and technology, also referred to as the golden triangle, are essential for successful project implementation.
Herding Cats
SEPTEMBER 19, 2018
Estimation is part of project management. . The most important estimates for the project manager are related to time and cost. . Since it is easier to estimate small tasks, these estimates are often calculated and performed as point estimates, for example, a task will take 3 days. Or perhaps as an estimate with two-point ranges. Each work activity in a discrete model will have an estimated duration - a scalar number, usually measured in days.
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