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Estimations.

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Pier Luigi Calabria Project Manager| INFORM Institut für Operations Research und Management GmbH, Aachen, Germany Aachen, Germany
I am struggling with time, resources and cost estimations, where can I find some stuff to study?
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Srikana Ray
Community Champion
IT Project Manager
Probably the PMBOK Guide is good place to start. There are PMP books by Rita Mulcahy and Andy Crowe. You could find templates here in the Templates section if you like to see an example. There are many articles here you could search for estimations and read them for better understanding.
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1 reply by Pier Luigi Calabria
Aug 08, 2018 8:30 AM
Pier Luigi Calabria
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Thank you, where can I exactly find these articles here?
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Pier Luigi Calabria Project Manager| INFORM Institut für Operations Research und Management GmbH, Aachen, Germany Aachen, Germany
Aug 08, 2018 8:27 AM
Replying to Srikana Ray
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Probably the PMBOK Guide is good place to start. There are PMP books by Rita Mulcahy and Andy Crowe. You could find templates here in the Templates section if you like to see an example. There are many articles here you could search for estimations and read them for better understanding.
Thank you, where can I exactly find these articles here?
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Srikana Ray
Community Champion
IT Project Manager
You could do a search for estimation in the "Search Content" box on this site (top right) and then opt for Articles in the Categories. Otherwise it displays all types of content deliverable, presentation, template, articles..
Other way is navigating thru Topics Cost Management/Schedule Management/Resource Management and look for relevant articles.
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Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina
Luigi, there are lot of information outside there that comes from 1945 up to date. From Theory of Error that belongs to mathematics to something "more earthly" than Barry Bohem´s Cone of Uncertainty. Estimation is only one that will help to any type (cost, schedule, etc). But if you do not understand what an estimation really is you all lost (my personal opinion I firmly believe and I can sustain). To give you some books as reference that belongs to software but are taken and cited into lot of other fields:
"Meassurements for Excellence" ISBN-10: 0135676940 ISBN-13: 978-0135676943
"Software Engineering Economics" ISBN-13: 978-0138221225 ISBN-10: 0138221227
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Jesus Martheyn Project Manager SR Lvl 2| Globant Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia
Hi Pier,

Well, there are some new guides from PMI related with Schedule and Cost estimations. In any case, it is a really hard task. You know, PBOK standard says that you could estimate using analogous estimations, but what happens when it is your first project on that field and there is no historical data? Also says that a bottom-up estimation can be the approach, but what happens when there is not enough time to do so?, and finally PERT. In my opinion, PERT estimations work better than the others, but in agile projects, it doesn't work as good as traditional project management.

So, if you are working on traditional project management, I recommend PERT estimations using a tool that allows you to get estimations of the most important stakeholders on every specific task. Try to explain first the task scope and then ask to give their estimations.

If you are working on agile projects, I recommend Planning Poker. But again, including the most important stakeholders on the estimation process for each task. Is great to get consensus between, for example, Analyst, Developer, QA and Development Leader.
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
The PMBOK is a great reference for what you are looking for. There are also oractice standards on the PMI websites for free download if you are a premium PMI Member.
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Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada
What type of projects are you managing as that will influence your selection of estimation approaches?

Kiron
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1 reply by Pier Luigi Calabria
Aug 09, 2018 2:16 AM
Pier Luigi Calabria
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Normally IT and SW projects
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Pier Luigi Calabria Project Manager| INFORM Institut für Operations Research und Management GmbH, Aachen, Germany Aachen, Germany
Aug 08, 2018 3:13 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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What type of projects are you managing as that will influence your selection of estimation approaches?

Kiron
Normally IT and SW projects
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Aug 09, 2018 7:49 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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If that the case then go to references inside my post. Adding to that the CMU SEI, ACM and IEEE web sites and documentation. That is my recommendation.
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Tamer Zeyad Sadiq Assistant Cost Manager| Turner & Townsend Riyadh, Ar Riyad, Saudi Arabia
PMBOK from PMI & SK6 from AACEI. There are the best resources!!!!
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VASUDEV NARAYANAN Program Manager| Pentapolis Foundation Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Okay. It would better if you could check your organizational process assets. That would help you to arrive at the estimates inline with your domain. This should be your first step.You could very well avoid reinventing the wheel.

Do you consider this step as a challenge?
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1 reply by Pier Luigi Calabria
Aug 09, 2018 9:21 AM
Pier Luigi Calabria
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It's a starting point, definitely
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