Final Thoughts on Estimating

Bill is President, Project Management Partners in Lexington, Mass., and is a consultant and trainer.

  Estimating   ProjectsAtWork  

Wrapping up his series on estimating, Bill Duncan covers a potpourri of topics, including the key outcome of estimating, converting effort estimates into budgets, dealing with poorly defined work, and what to do when management thinks it should cost less or take less time.

This is the final article in a three-part series on accurate estimating.

The first article in this series, "In Your Estimation" (January 27, 2005), focused on definitions since many people use terms such as estimate and budgetas synonyms when, in fact, they are very different. Here is a brief recap of some key definitions:

Estimate — an informed assessment of an uncertain event. Informed means that you have an identified basis for the estimate. Uncertain recognizes that multiple outcomes are possible.

Effort — effort is an expenditure of physical or mental effort on the part of a project team member. Effort is normally measured in terms of staff hours.

Budget — a management metric that is derived from the estimate of the relevant work.

Baseline — a time-phased budget that has received all necessary approvals.

In the second article, "The Mechanics of Estimating" (March 10, 2005), I introduced the idea of three-point range …

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