Why Estimate?
As important as understanding what an estimate is, a key concept to understand is “why do we estimate in the first place?” The answer is that business decisions always look into the future. Decisions are being made based on factors whose values aren't known yet. More often than not, values for those factors can't be known for certain at the time the decision needs to be made. How much will it cost to develop some product? You won't know for sure unless you actually develop it and add up all the bills. However, the decision to develop it or not still needs to be made. So you estimate as best you can and try to come as close as possible to what you think the actual outcome is going to be.
What kinds of decisions are made on software ...
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