Estimating Software Costs, 2nd Edition

Chapter 22Estimating Software Project Management

In round numbers, the project management function will contribute between 10 and 20 percent to the cost of software projects. Project managers also exert a strong influence on schedules, quality, and team morale. For large software projects, failures and disasters are more closely correlated to poor project management than to poor technical work. In fact, poor project management can cause poor technical work by skimping on inspections and quality control activities and by creating excessively optimistic cost and schedule estimates.

Estimating the work of software project managers is surprisingly complicated, and is supported by very little in the way of solid empirical data. In fact, even the ...