Estimating Software Costs for Management

Estimating software costs for Management

[Music] no matter the size or budget project estimation can be a daunting task to create a workable estimate you need to know your team deliverables tasks and processes like the back your hand you also have to be comfortable asking questions to figure out the things you don't know project estimation is the process of forecasting the time cost and resources needed to deliver a project it typically happens during project initiation or planning and takes the project's scope deadlines and potential risks into account every business has a budget and wants to know if a project is worth the cost before they invest in it a project estimate gives you and your stakeholders a general idea of how much time effort and money it will take to get the job done that makes it easier to build a feasible project budget and plan so you can set your team and organization up for success sometimes project managers focus too much on the numbers and not enough on the people good project estimation techniques are built on solid working relationships that's because the more you know about someone's work and process the easier it is to estimate their work if you want to be even better at estimating projects invite your team to be a part of the estimation process a stronger understanding of and collaboration with your team will help your projects come in closer to your project budgets to estimate projects successfully you must engage in the work having a solid understanding of what each and every team member actually does on a daily basis can help you avoid problems down the road so how are you supposed to understand jim's role on the team and how his work will impact an estimate well you have to talk to jim as a project manager one of the best things you can do is be genuine and honest about what you don't know if you really want to know how or why someone does their job just ask them it might sound silly but most project managers feel like they're supposed to know everything you don't and that's okay remember it's better to admit what you don't know and ask questions from the get-go this not only gives you an opportunity to connect with your team on an individual level it also helps you understand the inner workings of different types of projects and their appropriate budgets after all figuring out the steps one person takes to create a deliverable will work wonders in helping you calculate a true and accurate project estimate once you've got a good grasp on who does what and how you need to figure out how all of your projects moving parts fit together or could fit together you may work for a company that abides by a singular method like agile or waterfall in that case you should study that process know all of your dependencies and run with your estimates if you work in a place that uses a hybrid approach and likes to experiment make it your mission to understand how things are done and what might happen to your project schedule if you shift things around do everything you can to understand your process but don't just read a book or a manual have conversations with the people who have a stake in your project and feel free to ask how why and when things are done the more you know the better you can strategize with your team or clients to find alternate ways to make project estimates work and save on effort it's always important to include your team in any discussions related to project estimation be sure to talk about the process you'd envision taking on when estimating projects as it will impact how you think about effort and scope you never want to sign on for a project your team isn't invested in no matter where you work things will change a career in project management means you have to always stay on top of trends changes and deliverables in your industry it isn't easy but it's worth it because it will directly affect your success as a project manager so how can you improve your project estimation process well approach your job as though it's continuing education read relevant trade publications websites and blogs attend training and networking events there are also a growing number of local meetups and conferences on project management and estimation it's also important to understand different ways to estimate projects so you can find an approach that works best for you here are just a few project estimation techniques you may want to learn a little bit more about top down estimating this estimation technique takes a broad look at the project as a whole then breaks the total estimate down into major phases of work it's typically used when you have limited information about the project to work from bottom-up estimating the bottom-up approach is considered more accurate than top-down estimation because it starts with a detailed list of tasks and estimates each step individual task estimates are then combined to create an overall project estimate analogous estimating this top down technique compares the current project to similar past projects to quickly produce a general project estimate parametric model estimation parametric modeling also uses past projects to inform new project estimates it takes forecasting a step further by applying past data to current project specs for more accurate cost estimation estimating this approach estimates a project based on three different scenarios best case worst case and most likely estimates for all three scenarios are then added up and divided by three to generate a simple average without a doubt historical data can help you with new projects when history is documented you can analyze the information to help you create better estimates a great place to start is by asking your team to track their time on tasks this will give you a better sense of a project's overall level of effort it's not about playing big brother to make sure people are doing their work it's about being honest about what it takes to get the job done while also being profitable of course every project is unique but seeing how long your team spent on a certain task or deliverable will give you a sense for estimating a similar task on a new project as project managers we tend to underestimate project tasks thinking we're doing our clients and team a favor but underestimating a project does everyone a disservice and causes stress when budgets and timelines go over their estimates check your track time and use it to create a realistic project estimate if nothing else review your project history to make sure you're not habitually underestimating project costs or hours whether you're estimating a project based on a request for proposal a discussion or a brief written message you need to know every possible detail of the project before you can provide a realistic estimate this often means that you have to ask more questions asking the right questions enables you to create a project estimate based on what your client needs not what you think they need so take time to understand the triple constraints that could cause your project to go over budget time cost and scope if you keep track of these three things you'll be a better project estimator here are some things to think about when estimating project time and budget accurately what's the goal of the project how will you and your client determine if the project is successful what returns will you and your client see as a result of the project who will participate in from the client side what range of services does the project require what's your client's budget for the project is there any technology involved if so what is that technology does your client employ anyone with expertise on the topic what's the timeline for the project and will your client require your services after your work is complete this list could go on and on depending on the level of information you're provided be persistent and get the answers you need and if your client isn't inclined to answer every question take that as a sign if answering important questions now is too much to help you form a good estimate will being a good partner when the project is underway be too much for them too use your judgment in this respect not every estimate becomes a real project so not every request needs to become a real estimate if you think about a project you can naturally break it down into phases tasks and subtasks if you can map it all out and apply a time estimate to each element you should be able to create a solid project estimate there's a project planning and estimation technique called the work breakdown structure that makes it easy a work breakdown structure is a deliverable oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components it provides a framework for detailed cost estimation as well as guidance for schedule development and control creating a work breakdown structure for any plan or set of tasks helps you get granular about the work that needs to be done on any given project teamgantt makes it easy to set up and estimate a potential project in fact it gives you a more formalized way to outline your work breakdown structure and calculate a project's time and effort you can estimate project timelines based on effort and assign resources to tasks in your gantt chart from there you can schedule people and tasks against other project work let's take a closer look at how hourly estimation works in teamgantt first make sure estimated hours is enabled on your project by going to menu project settings enable hours and selecting yes note here that hourly estimation is only available on advanced plans once you've confirmed hourly estimation is enabled on your project you're ready to add estimates to tasks in your gantt chart to assign hours to a task simply click into the text field in the estimated hours column and enter your estimate if you don't see the estimated hours column for your project click view estimated hours to enable this column on your gantt chart one of the biggest benefits of using hourly estimation in teamgantt is being able to determine your team's workload more accurately to do this you'll need to take project estimation one step further by adding estimated hours to the people assigned to the tasks there are three different ways to add hourly estimates to people or labels it all depends on your particular project scenario option one assign both users and estimated hours to a task at the same time hover over the task and click the assign column or the person icon that appears next to the taskbar next select the resources you'd like to assign to the task and enter either the average hours per day or total hours the other field will populate automatically option 2 add estimated hours after users have already been assigned to a task hover over the estimated hours column then click into the text field to enter the total estimated hours for the task a pop-up window will appear asking if you'd like to adjust the hours for the users or labels assigned to the task option 3 assign people to tasks after estimated hours have already been added first hover over the task and click on the assign column or the person icon that appears next to the taskbar next click either the fix button at the bottom of the user assignment window or simply select users to assign hours to now that you've assigned estimated hours to your team you'll have an even better understanding of just how busy everyone is click the availability tab found at the bottom of your project scan chart and toggle to hours per day any day that includes over 8 hours of work will automatically be highlighted in red to indicate a potential overload ready to dig in and estimate a project of your own start with some practice so you'll feel confident in your estimating skills create an example project of your own and list out all the steps that go into completing it then run it by one of your team members to see what they think did you miss anything did you underestimate the hours doing a test run will help you prepare for your first real estimate or hone your project estimation skills for your next one there's no right or wrong way to create a project estimate your approach to estimating projects will include a mixture of project knowledge historical review client inquisition and a ton of gut instinct and that's it for this video on estimating projects if you found it helpful i'd love it if you could return the favor and hit the like button and don't forget to subscribe to our channel so you don't miss any of our videos thanks for watching i'll see you next time you