Often referred to as the “black art” because of its complexity and uncertainty, software estimation is not as difficult or puzzling as people think. In fact, generating accurate estimates is straightforward—once you understand the art of creating them. In his highly anticipated book, acclaimed author Steve McConnell unravels the mystery to successful software estimation—distilling academic information and real-world experience into a practical guide for working software professionals. Instead of arcane treatises and rigid modeling techniques, this guide highlights a proven set of procedures, understandable formulas, and heuristics that individuals and development teams can apply to their projects to help achieve estimation proficiency. Discover how to: Estimate schedule and cost—or estimate the functionality that can be delivered within a given time frame Avoid common software estimation mistakes Learn estimation techniques for you, your team, and your organization * Estimate specific project activities—including development, management, and defect correction Apply estimation approaches to any type of project—small or large, agile or traditional Navigate the shark-infested political waters that surround project estimates When many corporate software projects are failing, McConnell shows you what works for successful software estimation.

Estimating software development often produces more angst than value, but it doesn't have to. Identify the needs behind estimate requests and determine how to meet those needs simply and easily. Choose estimation techniques based on current needs and available information, gaining benefit while reducing cost and effort. Detect bad assumptions that might sink your project if you don't adjust your plans. Discover what to do when an estimate is wrong, how to recover, and how to use that knowledge for future planning. Learn to communicate about estimates in a healthy and productive way, maximizing advantage to the organization and minimizing damage to the people. In a world where most developers hate estimation and most managers fear disappointment with the results, there is hope for both. It requires giving up some widely held misconceptions. Let go of the notion that "an estimate is an estimate" and estimate for the particular need you, and your organization, have. Realize that estimates have a limited shelf-life, and reestimate frequently if it's important. When reality differs from your estimate, don't lament; mine that disappointment for the gold that can be the longer-term jackpot. Estimate in comparison to past experience, by modeling the work mathematically, or a hybrid of both. Learn strategies for effective decomposition of work and aspects of the work that likely affect your estimates. Hedge your bets by comparing the results of different approaches. Find out what to do when an estimate proves wrong. And they will. They're estimates, after all. You'll discover that you can use estimates to warn you of danger so you can take appropriate action in time. Learn some crucial techniques to understand and communicate with those who need to understand. Address both the technical and sociological aspects of estimation, and you'll help your organization achieve its desired goals with less drama and more benefit. What You Need: No software needed, just your past experience and concern for the outcomes.

Software effort estimation is one of the oldest and most important problems in software project management, and thus today there are a large number of models, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses in general, and even more importantly, in relation to the environment and context in which it is to be applied. Trendowicz and Jeffery present a comprehensive look at the principles of software effort estimation and support software practitioners in systematically selecting and applying the most suitable effort estimation approach. Their book not only presents what approach to take and how to apply and improve it, but also explains why certain approaches should be used in specific project situations. Moreover, it explains popular estimation methods, summarizes estimation best-practices, and provides guidelines for continuously improving estimation capability. Additionally, the book offers invaluable insights into project management in general, discussing issues including project trade-offs, risk assessment, and organizational learning. Overall, the authors deliver an essential reference work for software practitioners responsible for software effort estimation and planning in their daily work and who want to improve their estimation skills. At the same time, for lecturers and students the book can serve as the basis of a course in software processes, software estimation, or project management.

Agile Estimating and Planning is the definitive, practical guide to estimating and planning agile projects. In this book, Agile Alliance cofounder Mike Cohn discusses the philosophy of agile estimating and planning and shows you exactly how to get the job done, with real-world examples and case studies. Concepts are clearly illustrated and readers are guided, step by step, toward how to answer the following questions: What will we build? How big will it be? When must it be done? How much can I really complete by then? You will first learn what makes a good plan-and then what makes it agile. Using the techniques in Agile Estimating and Planning, you can stay agile from start to finish, saving time, conserving resources, and accomplishing more. Highlights include: Why conventional prescriptive planning fails and why agile planning works How to estimate feature size using story points and ideal days–and when to use each How and when to re-estimate How to prioritize features using both financial and nonfinancial approaches How to split large features into smaller, more manageable ones How to plan iterations and predict your team's initial rate of progress How to schedule projects that have unusually high uncertainty or schedule-related risk How to estimate projects that will be worked on by multiple teams Agile Estimating and Planning supports any agile, semiagile, or iterative process, including Scrum, XP, Feature-Driven Development, Crystal, Adaptive Software Development, DSDM, Unified Process, and many more. It will be an indispensable resource for every development manager, team leader, and team member.

Product verifiable, defensible, and achievable software estimates Based on data collected by the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group (ISBSG), Practical Software Project Estimation explains how to accurately forecast the size, cost, and schedule of software projects. Get expert advice on generating accurate estimates, minimizing risks, and planning and managing projects. Valuable appendixes provide estimation equations, delivery rate tables, and the ISBSG Repository demographics. Verify project objectives and requirements Determine, validate, and refine software functional size Produce indicative estimates using regression equations Predict effect and duration through comparison and analogy Build estimation frameworks Perform benchmarks using the ISBSG Repository Compare IFPUG, COSMIC, and FiSMA sizing methods Peter Hill is the chief executive officer and a director of the ISBSG. He has been in the information services industry for more than 40 years and has compiled and edited five books for the ISBSG.

In Software Project Estimation, author Dimitre Dimitrov extrapolates upon the most crucial steps in accurately and meaningfully forecasting the timeline and specs of promised deliverables to clients. A client’s positive experience with project delivery and implementation is a software organization’s calling card in the industry. The lifespan of a software project—from ideation to final installation—introduces dozens of potential pitfalls for a company’s track record, earnings, and overall team morale. However, these “pitfalls” are also opportunities to showcase strengths and to improve an organization’s product quality, and it all starts with project estimation. Reliable forecasting continues to present a challenge to even the most veteran teams and software development organizations. Dimitrov sets out to ease these common difficulties with invaluable methodology improvements and helpful visuals from his years of industry experience. Project managers—through harnessing the power of hard data and statistics—have a new world of impactful forecasting at their fingertips. This approach brings security, predictability, and motivation within the team, while simultaneously greatly benefiting client trust and relationships. Software Project Estimation clarifies the common misunderstandings that materialize between making a promise, making a plan, and building a forecast backed by data. Learn how to create an intelligent software project forecast and use it to make timely decisions, apply measured project control, and confidently steer your ship toward your goals with Software Project Estimation. What You Will Learn Concepts related to software estimation, forecasting, and project controlWays in which you can positively affect the relationships among team members working on a software delivery projectHow to apply this forecasting model, within both agile and waterfall teams who have adopted sound engineering practices Who This Book is For This book is directly relevant to the roles of scrum masters and project managers, and provides practical tools for intelligent project control. The book is also valuable for business people who want insight into the type of problems that delivery teams face, and for programmers and other delivery team members who want to gain an understanding of the project manager’s day-to-day challenges.

This is the digital version of the printed book (Copyright © 2003). To succeed in the software industry, managers need to cultivate a reliable development process. By measuring what teams have achieved on previous projects, managers can more accurately set goals, make bids, and ensure the successful completion of new projects. Acclaimed long-time collaborators Lawrence H. Putnam and Ware Myers present simple but powerful measurement techniques to help software managers allocate limited resources and track project progress. Drawing new findings from an extensive database of software project metrics, the authors demonstrate how readers can control projects with just Five Core Metrics -Time, Effort, Size, Reliability, and Process Productivity. With these metrics, managers can adjust ongoing projects to changing conditions-surprises that would otherwise cause project failure.