Questions on estimating schedule, costs, etc. go here.
2
votes
1answer
89 views
Should the Kanban CFD be weighted with estimates?
I am working in a Kanban process with a team the tries to estimate Cycle time, Lead time as well as completion time based on applying FIFO wherever possible on our queues.
Using the Cumulative Flow ...
5
votes
5answers
286 views
How to sequence tasks given time estimates?
What are the recommended techniques to get the fastest completion time? Just an example, a project has 6 tasks:
task1 takes 1 day
task2 takes 2 days
task3 takes 3 days, requires both task1 and ...
-1
votes
1answer
108 views
How to Estimate Scope, Cost and Budget for Developing a Phone App
I have some questions regarding how to handle bidding for a project, and how to structure the contract for the project.
How can I find the answers to the following questions:
How many people ...
18
votes
12answers
738 views
How do I stop going over my estimates?
I consistently underestimate my work. I'm gaining a bad reputation for it. I want to get past it.
I think the main problem is that I don't fully outline every step that needs to be taken. The first ...
2
votes
3answers
144 views
Alternative schedules in Microsoft Project 2010?
I'd like to create a "reference" schedule, then create an optimistic and pessimistic schedule based on this where the duration of each task in the optimistic/pessimistic schedules are calculated as a ...
1
vote
2answers
99 views
Quickly explain how to make estimation work to an external business stakeholder
Scenario: need to quickly explain how the estimation will work to an external business stakeholder; can't take more than few minutes really. The project area is web development.
P.S. There's no point ...
1
vote
4answers
143 views
How can we transition to Agile estimation based on complexity or effort of user stories?
We have being practicing agile development methodologies for a long time as a development company. Most of the time our product owners tries to have a map between story points and time. As a example, ...
5
votes
4answers
243 views
Sizing an entire backlog using story points
I'm a PM on a large multi-year project with a sizable backlog of work implementing Scrum in 4 week release cycles. I hold weekly backlog grooming sessions with the project team and key business ...
1
vote
5answers
186 views
First sprint: Epics chosen instead of stories - should I re-estimate and when?
I am trying out Scrum on a small, one-person project. During my first sprint, I realized that all of the stories I've chosen are really epics and should be broken down into much smaller pieces. The ...
35
votes
12answers
9k views
Why use story points instead of hours for estimating?
After using hours to estimate our projects for a long time and rarely coming within 20% of actual "work-to-ship," I have been told by a handful of people that "points" work a lot better at gauging the ...
3
votes
4answers
175 views
Schedule Control
Here's the scenario: You are building a schedule for a project that has a planned duration about three months. You are not concerned about project costs so you will not be doing EV. You are ...
1
vote
3answers
141 views
How to estimate accurate velocity when team members are on leave
I am a Scrum Master of a team with 12 members. I know that the size of the team is large at this point, but as we grow further we will divide the team into multiple Scrum Teams. Our estimations for ...
1
vote
4answers
108 views
How to compare and select one project out of two?
It's being rather a tough choice on selecting projects. (Different case from what I had posted before.) Now in the scenario if there is Project A and B. Only one project can be executed and that has ...
4
votes
3answers
212 views
How can developers and testers agree on story point estimates?
Previously we used duration for each story, but in our current sprint we are using story points (effort) keeping test team effort separate from the development team effort. Story points are based on ...
4
votes
2answers
122 views
How does a team (new to product and domain) estimates user stories of a ten year old product
I am a scrum master for one of the products in a product development company. Our team, including me, operates from India. However my product owner is in USA. We are working on a feature development ...
8
votes
6answers
271 views
Why use iterations in Scrum?
I am a Scrum Master in a 7 person team. We currently use one-week iterations for our sprints.
I find that sprint planning overhead is huge (2 hours each week for entire team), and not nearly as ...
3
votes
3answers
123 views
In Scrum, how to estimate research stories?
In our Scrum team, when there is uncertainty about a story or the team is not sure about how to implement it, we take up a research story first. Based on the findings of this research story, we are ...
1
vote
4answers
288 views
Modelling schedule uncertainty in Microsoft Project 2010+
Microsoft Project 2010 (and 2013) no longer contain PERT charts. With this in mind, what is the recommended way to model uncertainty in project time estimates?
UPDATE: I only brought up PERT diagrams ...
7
votes
5answers
270 views
How should a team handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
During estimation, the Product Owner presents a user story that seems clear to a team that usually knows their strengths and weaknesses, and that is not hostile. What should the Scrum Master do if the ...
0
votes
1answer
31 views
How long does it take to upgrade from Project Server 2007 to Project Server 2010? [closed]
If I had to upgrade from an existing Project Server 2007 to 2010 version, how many days can it take? Assuming the following, is a 1 or 2 day estimate reasonable?
Current Project Server 2007 consists ...
12
votes
9answers
1k views
How to deal with a team member who constantly overestimates
In an ideal world using Scrum we are all supposed to take part in the iteration planning, select tasks and stories, from the groomed backlog. You then have a planning meeting where everyone comes ...
4
votes
2answers
152 views
How can I estimate a project's costs without well-defined scope, scheduling, and quality inputs?
I work for a private investing firm that is looking to move from a face to face business to online business. They want to create a large, scalable website that can handle thousands of accounts and ...
5
votes
5answers
242 views
Slow client answers
Let's say, I have a project with well fixed deadlines, and a pretty good specification. Every specification needs additional discussion, with taking in consideration the client's requirements (I mean, ...
6
votes
5answers
95 views
Rent total cost prediction
I have a project management course now. One of points of my project requires me to rent a territory, and I need to include its cost in the project's total cost.
The first thing I thought was to ...
13
votes
5answers
203 views
How should I account for non-coding time when estimating duration of a coding task?
I was wondering whether this approach I am doing to scheduling dev work on a day to day basis is correct. In which I assume that instead that a developer has 8 hours a day to do coding, they actually ...
3
votes
3answers
167 views
How granular should an estimate be for building a web page?
Sufficient Granularity?
I have a ASP.NET web page to construct. The design of the UI and classes is already complete. I have prepared a task breakdown, including hours needed for each task.
Does ...
7
votes
5answers
198 views
Can planning poker in very heterogeneous teams help estimate user stories accurately?
Picture a very heterogeneous team, where every member knows just his/her field or just a part of his/her field and very very limited part of some other fields.
Does it makes sense to do the ...
5
votes
3answers
183 views
Changing backlog story point estimates mid way through a release
Background: We are mid-way through a development which was estimated for a customer on a fixed price contract. To come up with the estimate we built a backlog by trying to list all user stories and ...
6
votes
3answers
133 views
Costs for estimating the tasks in a project?
Before the Planning (and initial) phase of a project, there is obviously going to be some time devoted to an analysis of the client's requirements. I know this might be hard to answer, but is this ...
3
votes
1answer
84 views
Project Planning For Merchant-based Software
I'm quite new to project management. I have a software project in mind and would like to manage it the correct way.
The app basically allows movie theater owners to announce their upcoming movies, ...
-1
votes
1answer
68 views
estimating class homework [closed]
I have an estimating contracts class. the assignment calls for bidding on a excavating job. I am not able to determine the of amount of time I will need a supervisor for, but the assignment calls for ...
8
votes
5answers
270 views
Discerning estimate validity
I've had experiences in the past where different developers will give different qualities of estimates--which then have to be consolidated into a single project plan--only with a twist.
One ...
1
vote
1answer
200 views
Can you use the Software Equation to get LOC output?
The Software Equation is:
E is effort in man months or years.
P is the "productivity parameter."
B is the "special skills factor."
t is length of project measured in months or years.
Now, I'm ...
43
votes
8answers
7k views
How to estimate amount of work/man hours for an unfamiliar task?
Sooner or later we come across a task in our project, with which we are totally unfamiliar ('we' as in PM, but also possibly the staff assigned to do this particular task).
How can we estimate ...
8
votes
5answers
225 views
Agile/scrum - tracking time spent in current iteration towards stories from the next iteration if all current stories are done
Our team has been slowly trying to go towards agile, and like many other teams, up to this point, the question of "what do we do when we actually finish all commitments?" is fairly new and foreign to ...
11
votes
2answers
4k views
Basis of Estimate
Some consider the BOE the most important part of an estimate. How do you know that, when you write one, you hit the necessary aspects that brings confidence to the reader that the estimate is sound?
...
9
votes
3answers
177 views
How can I improve a project schedule on a project I took over and complete it on time?
I just took over a project from a Project Engineer and just saw a revised project schedule. The revised schedule shows the project will be delayed by 3 months. I am trying to complete it within the ...
4
votes
3answers
183 views
Which metrics can help estimate the size of a project?
I am putting together a project sizing tool to help understand what artifacts are required for projects (E.G., a simple project may not require a project charter, whilst a complex project may require ...
5
votes
3answers
195 views
How do I roughly estimate the size of my project in dollar amounts?
I've managed a few small projects at work, but I've never dealt with the budget. For instance, I've had a few tool projects, and two contracts, full time developers, and students. The project lasts ...
18
votes
7answers
730 views
How can a new PM manage a failing project in a few hours per week?
I am working as a beginning scientist and was given the management role for a small project (5 internal scientists, 1-2 external software contractors). What are the absolute essentials I need to ...
8
votes
7answers
346 views
Accuracy of Estimates
Aclear16, on an answer from another question, brought up the notion of accuracy of estimates. In my view, this notion is nonsensical; however, we talk about this often in PM circles.
In an ...
10
votes
5answers
309 views
How to estimate a project involving unfamiliar skillsets
We are trying to generate an initial estimate to see if a project is viable. The problem is that the project involves configuring and customising an open source product that the development team have ...
8
votes
9answers
572 views
What tools can help me estimate a project length?
I need a way to make fast estimates:
For example I'd like to know how long it takes to take a mobile device from nothing to production... let say that a customer wants a IPHONE like product(scope) ...
2
votes
1answer
98 views
Modal estimate when it comes to project deadlines
I'm relatively new to Project Management (having a technical background) and I noticed that there are these specific columns in an excel file regarding deadlines:
Pessimistic | Optimistic | Modal ...
5
votes
1answer
256 views
How can I track team member utilization across a range of projects?
I have a fixed-sized team (with fixed-hours) and products, more than the team can handle. At any given time, while my resources are working on one product, requests keep flowing in about work on other ...
2
votes
5answers
173 views
Is it important to estimate the product size for software project?
Estimate size is the process of approximating the size for of the products and parts to be produced for the project. Is it important to estimate the size, especially for the software project? Does the ...
5
votes
5answers
174 views
Accounting for scope growth in agile development
I work on a lot of small, agile software projects without huge up-front requirements; just ideas that I flesh out over time. Generally, development follows these stages:
Prototype (couple of days)
...
8
votes
6answers
1k views
Where should design be incorporated in an agile process?
We use a scrum-based agile development process. But where should design get incorporated? Separate user stories? Tasks on stories?
We currently think of design as a separate task and break it out as ...
3
votes
2answers
75 views
How can an EV be calculated when there are different versions of a project plan?
There is a project manager who is trying to come up with a way to calculate EV under a specific situation where there is a project management system which allows different versions of project plans.
...
3
votes
2answers
361 views
Firm Fixed Price Contracts and Binding the Work
For scope that is reasonably explicit, many customers choose to purchase services under a firm fixed price contract in order to remove cost risk. It is essentially transferring risk to the seller as ...
