Project Management Tips and Techniques:
Spend a Little Time Preparing Before You Jump Into a Major Estimate
Tom Mochal

Each month, Tom Mochal, President of TenStep, Inc. presents project management tips and techniques for planning and managing a project. TenStep, Inc. has a comprehensive, scalable project management process called TenStep (www.TenStep.com), as well as a project lifecycle process called LifecycleStep (www.LifecycleStep.com). Tom has also published a popular book called Lessons in Project Management that can be purchased at  www.TenStep.com.  Pipeline readers receive 20% off any TenStep or LifecycleStep purchase by entering the coupon code of "Pipeline" in their purchase.

1. Get a clear picture of the work that is being estimated. Many problems with estimation come because the estimator is not really sure what the work entails. You should avoid estimating work that you do not understand. This should not imply that you can know every detail. The estimating contingency (explained later) is a way to reflect some of this remaining uncertainty.
2. Determine who should be involved in the estimating process. The project manager may or may not know enough to make the estimates on his or her own. It is usually a good practice to look for estimating help from team members, clients, subject matter experts, etc. This will usually result in the estimates being far more accurate than you would get by yourself.
3. Determine if there are any estimating constraints. If there are estimating constraints, it is important to know them up-front. For instance, the end-date may be fixed (timeboxed). You should also know if the client expects Six-Sigma quality in the deliverables, or if the 80/20 rule will apply. It is possible that there may be a fixed budget that cannot be increased. (This would be of interest so that you can reduce the scope of work, if necessary, to meet the fixed budget.) Knowing these constraints will help the estimators make valid assumptions regarding the cost, duration and quality balance.
4. Determine multiple estimating techniques to utilize if possible. There are a number of techniques that can be used to estimate work. If possible, try to use two or more techniques for the estimate. If the estimates from multiple techniques are close, you will have more confidence in your numbers. If the estimates are far apart, you need to review the numbers to see if you are using similar assumptions. In this case, you can also try to utilize a third (and fourth) estimating technique to see if one initial estimate can be validated and the other rejected.

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