Project management estimation using Historical Data is often overlooked when building project estimation tools. The best estimation tools hone in on a team’s past performance and are supported by their historical data.
The major variables in project management estimation are:
- Complexity of the application
- New Team / Experienced team
- Technology (a Web app is built faster than a Mainframe one)
- Was there an outside force impacting past results… will that repeat?
- Was this a larger or smaller effort than last time?
The best project management estimation tools allow the creator to give some common sense to the process. Today’s market comes with resource refocusing where the team who did a similar project last year are not available so it needs to be done with a relatively new team.
Lessons Learned
I’m also a strong believer of taking your lessons learned document and putting a note into the estimate vs actual logs… An example is a corporate shift of priorities that negatively impacts the project. E.g. if the project was not impacted, it would have come in as planned in the 10-million-dollar range. It was impacted so it came in at 12 Million. Planning upfront should decide if the project is once again starting in a volatile priority culture or if those issues will not be assumed for this time.
Bottom line: your project management estimation base must start from past projects and allow the project team to tweak the plan up or down.
Use the comment section below to share your favorite estimation tools and processes.
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Ron is a Project Manager and occasional blogger with Chalder Consulting Inc. www.chalder.ca
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/rondsmith
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