Your Project Management Coach: Best Practices for Managing Projects in the Real World

Chapter 6

Estimating Work and Cost

Estimating is almost always a challenge because estimates by definition have some level of uncertainty. With work that's familiar, you can use past experience to build estimates that are close to the actual results. However, even estimating something as familiar as the time it takes to drive from home to the office can be tough if you have to take into account construction, rush hour traffic, weather, and a car that's emitting its last exhaust.

Estimates of project work and cost are challenging in other ways, too. Some people optimistically estimate getting a ton of work done each day. Others deliver high estimates to make sure that the work is completed before the dates they estimated. Estimators don't wear “Optimist” and “Pessimist” name tags, so you won't know which type of estimates you're getting unless you've worked with these people before. And because projects bring people together temporarily, you may work with people you don't know.

Early in a project life cycle, estimates can be rough. As you learn more about a project, you can develop better estimates. In this chapter, you learn how to obtain estimates with the level of precision you need. Getting the right people to estimate goes a long way toward obtaining realistic numbers. There are many estimating methods from which to choose. You learn about several different methods and the best time to use each one.

This chapter also describes what you estimate for a project. You'll learn ...