Standardize your presentation for a more accurate project cost estimate

This chapter from Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes illustrates the types of items that a good project estimating method should identify.

Estimating the resources and costs of a software-intensive project will largely depend on how the organization intends to complete the project. The example presented in this chapter from Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes, by Richard Stutzke, illustrates the benefits of developing a standardized method for presenting project details to the engineers, customers, and estimators, so that they can communicate more effectively. The chapter reveals that good estimates are prepared by following:

1. A basic process to identify items and to validate these items and their estimated amounts
2. Standard formats to record various types of information
3. Ways to measure characteristics, sizes, and amounts
4. Techniques to estimate characteristics, sizes, and amounts
5. Techniques to quantify the uncertainty in estimated and measured values
6. Systematic ways to identify all items to include in the estimate

Title: Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes
Author: By Richard Stutzke
Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional
Chapter 2: Planning a Warehouse Inventory System
ISBN: 0201703122; Published: April 26, 2005; Copyright 2005
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