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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
can become an accurate estimating tool for top-down (Analogous) and bottom-up (Parametric) estimating. Unfortunately, the large majority of project managers estimate tasks with durations and update tasks by entering %-complete as reported by team members. Happy estimating! 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
His early estimate – an analogous estimate – was $125,000 with a range of accuracy between -25 percent to +50 percent. John reported the revised estimate of $120,000 with a range of accuracy of -5 percent to +10 percent. Ask for estimates from the people doing the work. 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
When we hear that the next big thing in agile is Not Estimating, let's look to see how those 12 Principles can be applied without those estimates? . How estimates help implement these principles. Without estimates what is missing. Without estimating the delivered value to the business for the estimated cost and time to delivery that value, the balance sheet will be wholly uninformed about when the breakeven date for this expenditure. 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
Project managers need to be comfortable with different estimation techniques. Foundational project management courses will teach you about analogous, bottom-up, parametric and three-point estimating. Take a course covering agile delivery and you’ll learn about relative sizing techniques such as estimating poker or t-shirt sizing. Estimate the size or effort of that story or work package. MORE
Story points are a unit of measure for expressing an estimate of the overall effort that will be required to fully implement a product backlog item or any other piece of work. When we estimate with story points, we assign a point value to each item. It should also be two-thirds of a story that is estimated as 3 story points. Here are some benefits to using Story Points for estimating from Maarten Dalmijn's Medium post. Quickly estimate issues. MORE
While profit is not their goal, usually an economic impact figure can be estimated for the outcomes they aim to achieve. Visualizing and agreeing on a spatial reference for the risks and opportunities also engages the right hemisphere of the brain and makes us less likely to forget them. MORE
Talking with the moving van owner, he started telling stories about estimating the load in pounds. The agent makes the first estimate of the weight of the load, issues a quote for the cost of the move. The quality of the estimate depends on the skill and experience of the estimator. The reference class estimating process is part of that skill and experience. I relistened to Agile for Humans podcast with Steve McConnell about estimating. 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. The term flexibility in the Real Options paradigm refers to the capability of responding to a change or new situation. 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
There's a blog post from a few years back that has resurfaced The 5 Laws of Software Estimates. Law of Software Estimating. Fact of Software Estimating. Estimates are waste. To those paying the developers, estimates provide actionable information needed to make decisions: Can we afford to develop this feature? Estimates are non-transferrable . Its claimed Software estimates are not fungible. Estimates are Wrong. Estimates are NOT Guesses. 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
A nice conversation on twitter about estimates on software brought up the topic of estimates as commitments. The #NoEstimates advocates see estimates as making commitments. Yes, commitments are made when we estimate. Just for the reference, . Just for the reference, a commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. But that's got NOTHING to do with the need for the estimate and EVERYTHING to do with bad management. MORE
Estimating is a learned skill, used for any purpose from every-day life to management of projects. When I left for the airport this morning to catch my flight to a customer site I estimated, given the conditions, how much time I need to get to my favorite parking spot at DIA. The same process for estimating is applied to multi-billion dollar projects we work. Here's some materials that provide the tools and processes needed to learn how to estimate. MORE
To make sensible decisions, in the presence of uncertainty - reducible and irreducible - we need to estimate the probability that the decision will be the right decision. The world as it will be requires estimating the future using a variety of means. From past data used to construct a reference class forecast to Monte Carlo Simulation (and similar) methods using a model of the future to assess the possible outcomes. . 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. 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 SchedulingThese describe the increasing maturity of the project's artifacts. There are not specific to Agile Software Development. MORE
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. Ask for estimates from the people doing the work. 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 4 summary root causes of project performance failures is Unrealistic Cost and Schedule Estimates based on inadequate risk-adjusted growth models. Those making these claims may have their own personal purposes, their own agenda, their own reasons for sell this idea that estimates are somehow no longer needed when we're spending other people's money to produce value in exchange for that money. If you have no uncertainty, then estimates provide no value. 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
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
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. To start with, let’s understand Analogous Estimation, what exactly does it mean? 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
Quick Reference on Three Point Estimate I have written a series of articles on Three Point Estimate and related concepts. I have explained the basic concept of Three Point Estimate in my first article. The post Three Point Estimate Formulas appeared first on PM-by-PM. Cost Management Project Management Time Management 3 point estimate formulas Project Estimation MORE
These are classic examples from an author who is either unskilled, untrained, and inexperienced in estimating software development. Or who willfully ignores the knowledge and resources readily available in textbooks, papers, tools, and training for how to create credible estimates for software systems. What these quotes actually say is I have no intention of learning how to estimate cost, schedule, and technical performance because I don't want to. By simply NOT Estimating? MORE
Let's explore management reserves for projects, who controls them, and how to estimate the reserves. Why Reserves are Needed During the course of a project, you and your project team identify risks which are referred to as known/unknown risks. 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
MPUG
APRIL 2, 2020
can become an accurate estimating tool for top-down (Analogous) and bottom-up (Parametric) estimating. Unfortunately, the large majority of project managers estimate tasks with durations and update tasks by entering %-complete as reported by team members. Happy estimating!
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.
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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.
Herding Cats
MARCH 30, 2017
Talking with the moving van owner, he started telling stories about estimating the load in pounds. The agent makes the first estimate of the weight of the load, issues a quote for the cost of the move. The quality of the estimate depends on the skill and experience of the estimator. The reference class estimating process is part of that skill and experience. I relistened to Agile for Humans podcast with Steve McConnell about estimating.
Wrike
OCTOBER 19, 2020
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?
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.
Kiron Bondale
FEBRUARY 18, 2018
Project managers need to be comfortable with different estimation techniques. Foundational project management courses will teach you about analogous, bottom-up, parametric and three-point estimating. Take a course covering agile delivery and you’ll learn about relative sizing techniques such as estimating poker or t-shirt sizing. Estimate the size or effort of that story or work package.
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. To start with, let’s understand Analogous Estimation, what exactly does it mean?
Herding Cats
NOVEMBER 7, 2016
Estimating is a learned skill, used for any purpose from every-day life to management of projects. When I left for the airport this morning to catch my flight to a customer site I estimated, given the conditions, how much time I need to get to my favorite parking spot at DIA. The same process for estimating is applied to multi-billion dollar projects we work. Here's some materials that provide the tools and processes needed to learn how to estimate.
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.
Herding Cats
DECEMBER 30, 2017
One of the 4 summary root causes of project performance failures is Unrealistic Cost and Schedule Estimates based on inadequate risk-adjusted growth models. Those making these claims may have their own personal purposes, their own agenda, their own reasons for sell this idea that estimates are somehow no longer needed when we're spending other people's money to produce value in exchange for that money. If you have no uncertainty, then estimates provide no value.
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.
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.
PM by PM
NOVEMBER 18, 2015
Quick Reference on Three Point Estimate I have written a series of articles on Three Point Estimate and related concepts. I have explained the basic concept of Three Point Estimate in my first article. The post Three Point Estimate Formulas appeared first on PM-by-PM. Cost Management Project Management Time Management 3 point estimate formulas Project Estimation
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.
Herding Cats
SEPTEMBER 3, 2016
A nice conversation on twitter about estimates on software brought up the topic of estimates as commitments. The #NoEstimates advocates see estimates as making commitments. Yes, commitments are made when we estimate. Just for the reference, . Just for the reference, a commitment is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. But that's got NOTHING to do with the need for the estimate and EVERYTHING to do with bad management.
Herding Cats
JUNE 11, 2017
There's a blog post from a few years back that has resurfaced The 5 Laws of Software Estimates. Law of Software Estimating. Fact of Software Estimating. Estimates are waste. To those paying the developers, estimates provide actionable information needed to make decisions: Can we afford to develop this feature? Estimates are non-transferrable . Its claimed Software estimates are not fungible. Estimates are Wrong. Estimates are NOT Guesses.
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. 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 SchedulingThese describe the increasing maturity of the project's artifacts. There are not specific to Agile Software Development.
Herding Cats
MARCH 8, 2017
When we hear that the next big thing in agile is Not Estimating, let's look to see how those 12 Principles can be applied without those estimates? . How estimates help implement these principles. Without estimates what is missing. Without estimating the delivered value to the business for the estimated cost and time to delivery that value, the balance sheet will be wholly uninformed about when the breakeven date for this expenditure.
Leading Answers
JANUARY 16, 2021
While profit is not their goal, usually an economic impact figure can be estimated for the outcomes they aim to achieve. Visualizing and agreeing on a spatial reference for the risks and opportunities also engages the right hemisphere of the brain and makes us less likely to forget them.
Project Risk Coach
APRIL 26, 2021
His early estimate – an analogous estimate – was $125,000 with a range of accuracy between -25 percent to +50 percent. John reported the revised estimate of $120,000 with a range of accuracy of -5 percent to +10 percent. Ask for estimates from the people doing the work.
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
MARCH 2, 2021
Let's explore management reserves for projects, who controls them, and how to estimate the reserves. Why Reserves are Needed During the course of a project, you and your project team identify risks which are referred to as known/unknown risks.
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.
Herding Cats
OCTOBER 1, 2018
To make sensible decisions, in the presence of uncertainty - reducible and irreducible - we need to estimate the probability that the decision will be the right decision. The world as it will be requires estimating the future using a variety of means. From past data used to construct a reference class forecast to Monte Carlo Simulation (and similar) methods using a model of the future to assess the possible outcomes. .
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.
Herding Cats
MAY 15, 2019
Story points are a unit of measure for expressing an estimate of the overall effort that will be required to fully implement a product backlog item or any other piece of work. When we estimate with story points, we assign a point value to each item. It should also be two-thirds of a story that is estimated as 3 story points. Here are some benefits to using Story Points for estimating from Maarten Dalmijn's Medium post. Quickly estimate issues.
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? .
Project Risk Coach
JANUARY 9, 2017
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. Ask for estimates from the people doing the work.
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. The term flexibility in the Real Options paradigm refers to the capability of responding to a change or new situation. Why Guessing is not Estimating and Estimating is not Guessing.
Herding Cats
AUGUST 22, 2018
These are classic examples from an author who is either unskilled, untrained, and inexperienced in estimating software development. Or who willfully ignores the knowledge and resources readily available in textbooks, papers, tools, and training for how to create credible estimates for software systems. What these quotes actually say is I have no intention of learning how to estimate cost, schedule, and technical performance because I don't want to. By simply NOT Estimating?
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.
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.
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