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Estimation is a critical step in any project plan. For
many, project estimation is daunting, but it won't be if you
include ESTIMATE Professional™ in your arsenal of
estimation methods. This surprisingly easy-to-use planning and
estimation tool helps you minimize risk and increases the
confidence factor in your estimates significantly. Not only
does it help you estimate project schedules, cost and effort,
but it also helps you plan in a way that a project scheduler
cannot. No wonder it's been recognized by the prestigious
Software Development Magazine Jolt Awards (1998).
ESTIMATE Professional should be used by all project,
quality and development managers, team leaders and senior
engineers.
Estimation – the Challenge, the
Solution
Many project managers assume (incorrectly) that
setting a delivery date is an estimate. Inaccurate estimating
often has devastating results: poor quality software, loss of
credibility, lost marketing opportunities, budget overruns –
just to mention a few. Accurate project estimation is about
the most challenging and critical task facing software
professionals and a reliable estimate
is critical to the success of any software project.
Peace
of Mind
ESTIMATE Professional removes the guesswork and
uncertainty from your projects. It recognizes the volatile
nature of software development, and takes into account this
uncertainty and variability using Monte Carlo
Simulation.
By
allowing different calibration approaches, ESTIMATE
Professional increases the confidence factor of your
estimates. A wide selection of automated, detailed reports
explain how your estimates were calculated, adding credibility
to your results.
It is the only management tool which combines the most
well-known and reliable estimation
models* with statistical methods (Monte Carlo Simulation)
to show how you can maximize your probability of success.
*COCOMO 2.0 and the Putnam Methodology
With ESTIMATE Professional You Can...
- Generate an instant, initial estimate of development
effort, schedule and cost.
- Scope
your project using time (effort) if you don't know the LOC
or function point count. Or, if you prefer, estimate project
components by LOC, function points, GUI features and
more.
- Get
immediate feedback on whether you can meet schedule
constraints with the desired scope of work.
- Easily
export/import to or from project schedulers such as
Microsoft® Project (or spreadsheet software), for a total
project management solution.
- Adjust
your project size easily to see what needs to be trimmed in
order to deliver on time.
- Increase the confidence factor of your estimates with
reliable, scientific calculations.
- Determine the degree of risk your organization is
able to take so that you can plan or budget better to
counter it.
- Generate comprehensive reports that show all planning
options in detail.
- Predict
the number of defects that might occur at a given point in
your project.
- Use
wizards to accomplish estimates more easily.
Using
the Tool
Once you
have an initial estimate, you can begin use ESTIMATE
Professional to help you optimize your project plan by doing
"what-if" scenarios to examine the tradeoffs between different
manpower, schedule, or cost options. This saves a lot of
manual effort if you were to do this in a project scheduler
like Microsoft® Project.
Using past
project data as a basis for new estimates gives the most
accurate results, but most organizations don't have it. This
is where you can use the tool's indsutry data to create an
initial estimate which you should then refine as you learn
more about your own project. If you have
historical data, you can store it in the
tool's historical database for future use.
You can
calibrate any estimate by adjusting attributes such as data
reliability, documentation required, platform stability,
programmer capability and experience and more.
A comprehensive set of reports will provide a
full audit trail of all of the input data used to create an
estimate. These reports provide backup and explanations for how
your estimates were derived, and form a valuable basis for
discussion and negotiation with key players.
Plan
Confidently, What You Can Build Within Schedule
Project
managers are often caught between a rock and a hard place.
Business needs often demand software to be ready in deadlines
that are often unrealistic, given the functionality that has
to be included. See how to use ESTIMATE Professional to align
your technical estimates with business goals (download
available - Microsoft Word doc 1.18 Mb). A White Paper on "Why
Planning Is Better with Estimation Than Without" is also
available (208 kb pdf).
ESTIMATE
Professional has a TimeBox Estimation feature which provides:
- an
at-a-glance view of the scope of each project component
(feature or feature set)
- an easy
way to decide where to cut back and where to add more, or
where to re-scope components to fit into the allotted
time
- greater
control over your project's size
- a way
to ensure timely delivery
How it
works: You set your project deadline. Then you balance
delivery date and features by selectively including or
excluding project components.

Plan
Effectively with Requirements-based Estimates
There is
substantial industry evidence that two of the leading causes
for project failure are poor requirements management and poor
project estimation. Using a detailed requirements list as a
foundation for an estimate is a very good way to gain further
insight into project effort. Software Productivity Center Inc.
has collaborated with Technology
Builders, Inc. to provide an integrated solution for
requirements-based estimation using Caliber-RM™,
a requirements management tool, and ESTIMATE Professional. By
leveraging the work you put into defining and itemizing your
requirements within the database-driven functionality of
Caliber-RM, you can now identify the associated business risks
with ESTIMATE Professional's estimation engine.
A great
advantage of requirements-based estimates is that they
generate an early picture of your schedule and staffing curve
right at the beginning of the project lifecycle. Using the
'what-if' functionality in ESTIMATE Professional provides you
immediate feedback on the impact of any changes in
requirements so that more detailed and more accurate estimates
can be generated as a project progresses through design.
Read
more (13 kb pdf) about how you can
obtain comprehensive requirements-based estimates to help you
better allocate resources, and more accurately predict
timeframe and costs in the early phases of a project.
Check out a
demo of how you
can take advantage of the integration between Caliber RM
and ESTIMATE Professional to create requirements-based
estimates. The demo runs
for about 5 minutes and is available from the
Caliber-RM
integrations page. |
Estimation Expertise Is Not Required
ESTIMATE
Professional's flexible interface and scoping methods allow
project managers of all levels of experience to obtain
reliable results and maintain control of their projects. The
tool was originally created by author, Steve McConnell and his
company, Construx Software Builders.
Unlike
most other estimation software on the market, ESTIMATE
Professional requires NO formal training or prior experience.
Its simple wizards replace those tedious handbooks. If you
want to learn more about basic estimation concepts and
practices and how to maximize your gains from this simple yet
powerful tool, check out our training and consulting links.
Tech
Support
Customer
support is FREE.
Minimum
System Requirements
- VGA
monitor
- Windows
95, 98 or Windows NT 4.0
- CD ROM
(the product is downloadable)
30-Day
Demo
To obtain
a free 30-day demo of ESTIMATE Professional, call us at
604-662-8181 ext. 102, or email tools@spc.ca.
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