Software Estimation Services Improve your Organization’s Processes and Practices

Software estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic amount of effort required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and noisy input. Building software is not the same as building a bridge or road because of the inherent variability of functional requirements before and during software development. Software cost estimation in software engineering provides a reliable predictive method to understand future development activity.

While techniques such as Agile or Scrum are designed to mitigate this variability at the team level, program or software project estimation for planning or budgeting needs remain for the enterprise. Inaccurate software program or project estimates are the cause of a lot of waste and increased project risk. Two recurring problems include:

1. The initial estimate is too high, leading to low productivity or missed opportunities.

2. The initial estimate is too low, leading to inefficient resource allocation at the end of the project, budget overruns, and late deliveries.

The estimating processes, techniques, and tools available to help solve these problems require expertise and regular use to deliver benefits. Our software development estimation services are available to quickly and easily improve your existing software project estimation techniques or practices or to implement a new estimation practice within your organization.

Our Software Estimation Offerings Include:

• Training: Agile Estimation 
• Training: Software Estimation 
• Estimation Process Gap Analysis 
• One-Off Vendor Estimate Validation 
• Estimation Center of Excellence Proof of Concept 
• Estimation Center of Excellence 

Common Software Cost Estimation Use Case Scenarios

Usage of Software Cost Estimation is seen often in these use cases:

• Software projects consistently missing cost, quality and time for market objectives –Software programs or projects consistently over-budget or late or defect-ridden delay the delivery of business value and suggest existing software project estimation techniques are inadequate. Implementing effective estimation methods and techniques reduces risk and improves predictability of performance.
• Independent Software Cost Estimation – Organizations use third-party software development vendors and receive pricing estimated pricing and delivery times. An independent software development estimation provides a “should cost” and “should take” model of vendor delivery performance enabling confidence of value received for money spent.
• PMO or Enterprise Accountability – Large organizations manage hundreds if not billions of dollars of software spending and require quantitative methods to budget and track programs, projects and portfolios. Function Point Analysis and Parametric software estimation is used to predict project cost and performance of planned spending and then to monitor, track and report on the performance from an economic and engineering viewpoint.

Learn More:

Software Project Estimating: The Value Proposition: Read this examination of the benefits of software project estimation, which includes a financial ROI analysis.

The Insights section of our website features additional reference materials. Visit it to find more information on this topic. 

Consulting Services:

Our software development estimation services are designed as standard, packaged offerings developed from working with clients across various industries. These services are effective and proven but may not fully meet your specific needs. Therefore we offer customized services based on the fundamentals of software estimation and welcome talking with you on your particular circumstances

Please contact David Lambert at +1.719.582.2003 to discuss your software estimation options.