Project Cost Estimating

Why We Estimate Project Size Before Starting A Project

In today's highly globalized marketplace, companies are shifting to geographically distributed strategy wherein most work is done virtually. With this change, a significant number of companies have encountered a high degree of difficulty in software estimate and scope estimate. Some have even experienced real development failures because the software cost estimate was not derived properly.

The amount of success your organization can achieve depends greatly on how it uses software cost estimation tools to accurately identify which circumstance the project can run into with regards to schedule, resource overruns, and cost.

Analyzing and testing different scenarios involving design, scheduling, and staffing can also be helpful in achieving the project goal. The project manager as well as the technical leader needs to be involved in the project estimation phase. After all, they will be the one to implement the development strategy.



What Methods Could be Used?

Any software estimate is based on organizational resources and software specifications. In general, estimation methods will involve three factors: (1) requirement analysis, (2) numbers derivation, and (3) final computation. The three steps are manually repeated iteratively in most cost estimation techniques. For example, tools such as the PERT, SLOC prediction and COCOMO are all based on these methods. Algorithms analysis involving case studies, neutral networks, and class points likewise use the three steps.

Though the above-mentioned systems are widely used, it has two distinct drawbacks that make it difficult for project managers to attain optimal output. The first significant disadvantage is that even mid-sized software projects have hundreds of different requirements, both functional and non-function. In essence, it makes it difficult for estimators to give an accurate software cost estimate because the requirements are almost always larger than what was expected.

Second, estimators have the tendency to approximate figures. If the project is complex, a lot of small estimations will be involved. The final computation can vary drastically from the accurate amount. The quick solution to this is to decrease the number of derived figures and TechnoPark is designed to do that.



What Method Was Invented by TechnoPark?

In an ideal managed software project environment, the project needs to be defined by the software requirements specifications or SRS. In addition, a list of requirements will define the extent of the project scope. Non-functional requirements will merely enhance the functional ones with quality features.

TechnoPark uses three steps in its methodology including (1) selecting Scope Champions, (2) Estimating Scope Champions, and (3) computing for the project estimate. Basically, the Scope Champion is the functional requirements that were selected. When these features are selected, estimators create isolated estimates for them.

Using this method, the final computation becomes dramatically more accurate because of the estimators base their findings on a detailed analysis and the final computation becomes easier to review and validate. Overall, the TechnoPark software cost estimating technique can help any organization plan a detailed project roadmap that increases the chances of success.