Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Best Practices (Microsoft))

16.1 Flow of an Individual Estimate on a Poorly Estimated Project

On poorly estimated projects, the creation of the estimate flows as shown in Figure 16-1.

Figure 16-1: Estimation on a poorly estimated project. Neither the inputs nor the process are well defined, and the inputs, process, and outputs are all open to debate.

The inputs, the estimation process, and the outputs are not well defined, and they are open to debate and scrutiny. Scrutinizing the estimation process would be beneficial if the objective were to obtain more accurate results. But the objective of the scrutiny is usually to make the estimate smaller. In other words, the scrutiny tends to put downward pressure on the estimate, which is not offset by any corresponding upward pressure.