Prototyping for Effective Estimation and Planning

  Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)   Knowledge Shelf  

Project estimation and planning in the absence of historical data are always challenging, and project-based organizations like software system integrators always face these challenges.

This article is based on an actual fixed-price software development, called project “X,” for a large telecommunications company in Germany, which was executed between June 2009 and February 2010. The project involved a total of 25 people in two different geographic locations. Because the technology mix involved was new (J2EE/Swing), the project organization did not have any historical data to support the estimation process. The team that estimated was involved in the development.

The actual results were very close to the estimates, with 98% accuracy, and the project was delivered on time and within budget.

For effective estimation and planning, it is suggested that project teams do the following:

• Construct a prototype as a part of the estimation/bidding process to measure the time taken to build the prototype.
• Extrapolate the metrics collected to estimate the entire project scope
• Validate the estimates using a top-down approach like use case points/function point estimation

Use the estimate, risks discovered, and key learnings to create an effective project plan

Constructing the Prototype

The purpose of constructing a prototype is to …

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