Software Project Management in Practice

4.2. EFFORT ESTIMATION

At Infosys, estimation generally takes place after analysis. That is, when a project manager estimates the effort, the requirements are well understood. The business processes are organized to support this approach. For example, the requirement phase is sometimes executed as a separate project from the software development project.

At Infosys, multiple estimation approaches have been proposed, some of which are discussed here. A project manager can choose any of the estimation approaches that suit the nature of the work. Sometimes, a project manager may estimate using multiple methods, either to validate the estimate from its primary method or to reduce the risks, particularly where past data of similar projects are limited. ...