Estimations – Some best practices

Estimation is a decision about how much time and resources are required to carry out a piece of work to acceptable standards of performance. Fine, most of the project managers do this estimation practice, with the help of tech leads, or key team members. Here, I would like to share some best practices based on my experiences in estimation process.

• Schedule full-time team members at three and a half to four working (productive)days per week to allow for holidays, absences, and training sessions
• Always include management time where appropriate as an additional 10%
• In planning, avoid splitting tasks between individuals – when tasks are split between two individuals do not reduce the time by 50% - allow time for communication and coordination
• Take individual experience and ability into account
• Allow time for cross functional data transfer and responses
• Build in time for unscheduled urgent tasks arising on other non-project activities
• Build in spare time for problem solving and project meetings

For each key stage keep a record of
• Any assumptions made during estimations
• Where contingencies have been added & how much added.