Software Estimation Much More Complicated Than Some Perceive

How many times have we been asked to submit a 5 minute or off the cuff estimate to stakeholders… Then be held to that estimate even though we missed the complexity in our haste.. Of course if we didn’t prepare an estimate until everything was known the estimate would be of little value.  That is why uncertainty must be part of the process and off the cuff, manual estimations should be avoided when possible.

I thought these diagrams showing the perceived simplicity of the software estimation process versus complexities in the software cost estimation process were very interesting.

Perceived (Classical) Source: Vigder/Kark

More Real World Cost Estimation Process: Source Vigder/Kark

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4. Software Testing Effort Estimation Bottoms-Up Article There is a decent article on manually decomposing testing and estimating bottoms up. While it would be much more accurate to use...
5. Software Cost Estimation Is Like the BCS Ratings Thanks to David DeWitt for this article.  It is just disappointing that I sat outside at a football game in...

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