Software Project Estimation

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Estimation

• The project manager must set expectations about the time required
to complete the software among the stakeholders, the team, and the
organization’s management.
• expectations should be realistic
• If those expectations are not realistic from the beginning of the
project, the stakeholders will not trust the team or the project
manager.

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 What is Project Estimation?
•define project scope
• Describe scope, assumptions, constraints
• Define estimated functional points (business req.)
• Define WBS
•Define estimated time
• Make activity lists as per WBS
• Create network diagram to show the flow
•Define estimated cost
•Resource (people, equipment)
•Licensing fees /other charges
•Admin costs
•Trainings if needed
•After that project manager put forward the proposal
for acceptance.
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 Estimation is good for
•Stakeholders
•Have confidence about the design
•Vendors
•They can manage their budget as per the efforts
•Team members
•Got idea about
• What to do?
• When to do?
•Project manger
• Everyone is on same page so less management burden

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Importance of Cost estimation

Wrong estimation

Wrong workflow

Project failure

Stake holders won’t trust

project manager again

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For good estimation, following are needed:

•A work breakdown structure (WBS)

• list of tasks that will produce the final product
•A clear effort estimation for each task
•A list of assumptions which were necessary for making the
estimate
•Consensus among the project team that the estimate is
accurate

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Assumptions Make Estimates More Accurate

•Team members make assumptions about the work to be

done in order to deal with incomplete information

•Must estimate the issues needed to make decision

•Assumptions must be written down so that if they prove to be

incorrect then it must be back tracked and corrected.

•Assumptions bring the team together very early on in the project

so they can make progress on important decisions that will affect
development

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Wideband Delphi
•Wideband Delphi is a process that a team can use to
generate an estimate
•The project manager chooses an estimation team,
•and gains consensus among that team on the results
•Wideband Delphi is a repeatable estimation process
because it consists of a straightforward set of steps that
can be performed the same way each time

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Delphi TECHNIQUE
• Take inputs from multiple stake holders
• Create final estimate on that
• Steps followed:
• Must have a facilitator/coordinator
• Create list of experts
• Create 3-5 questions
• For example what's better to use for project? Azure / AWS etc..….
• Reach to all the results
• Analyze & iterate

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The Wideband Delphi Process

• Step 1: Choose the team

• The project manager selects the estimation team and a moderator.
The team should consist of 3 to 7 project team members.
• The moderator should be familiar with the Delphi process, but
should not have a stake in the outcome of the session if possible.
• If possible, the project manager should not be the moderator
because he should ideally be part of the estimation team.

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The Wideband Delphi Process

•Step 2: Kickoff Meeting

•The project manager must make sure that each team
member understands the Delphi process, has read the
vision and scope document and any other
documentation, and is familiar with the project
background and needs.
•The team brainstorms and writes down assumptions.
•The team has the generated WBS.
•The team agrees on a unit of estimation.

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The Wideband Delphi Process

•Step 3: Individual Preparation

•Each team member independently generates a set of
preparation results.
•For each task, the team member writes down an estimate
for the effort required to complete the task,
•and any additional assumptions he needed to make in
order to generate the estimate.

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The Wideband Delphi Process

•Step 4: Estimation Session

•During the estimation session, the team comes to a
consensus on the effort required for each task in the WBS.
•Each team member fills out an estimation form which
contains his estimates.
•The rest of the estimation session is divided into rounds
during which each estimation team member revises her
estimates based on a group discussion. Individual
numbers are not discussed.

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The Wideband Delphi Process

•Step 4: Estimation Session (continued)

•The moderator collects the estimation forms and plots
the sum of the effort from each form on a line:

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The Wideband Delphi Process

• Step 4: Estimation Session (continued)

• The team resolves any issues or disagreements that are brought up.
• Individual estimate times are not discussed. These disagreements are usually
about the tasks themselves. Disagreements are often resolved by adding
assumptions.
• The estimators all revise their individual estimates. The moderator updates
the plot with the new total:

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The Wideband Delphi Process

•Step 4: Estimation Session (continued):

• The moderator leads the team through several rounds of estimates to
gain consensus on the estimates. The estimation session continues
until the estimates converge or the team is unwilling to revise
estimates.
•Step 5: Assemble Tasks
• The project manager works with the team to collect the estimates
from the team members at the end of the meeting and compiles the
final task list, estimates and assumptions.
•Step 6: Review Results
• The project manager reviews the final task list with the estimation
team.

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Case study

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Solution

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