As part of our Estimation Tasks services offerings, we can help our clients with various Estimation activities for their Product/Program/Project requirements. As a matter of fact, Software projects are typically controlled by four major variables; time, requirements, resources (people, infrastructure/materials, and money), and risks. Unexpected changes in any of these variables has a major impact on a project.
Hence, making good estimates of time and resources required for a project is a very crucial & critical activity. Underestimating project needs can cause major problems because there may not be enough time, money, infrastructure/materials, or people to complete the project. Overestimating needs can be very expensive for the organization because a decision may be made to defer the project because it is too expensive or the project is approved but other projects are “starved” because there is less to go around.
We at Anurakti Solutions, can help you at your estimation tasks by providing various solutions based on your needs. Estimate types can be roughly divided into three categories:
- Ballpark or order of magnitude : Here the estimate is probably an order of magnitude from the final figure. Ideally, it would fall within two or three times the actual value.
- Rough estimates : Here the estimate is closer to the actual value. Ideally it will be about 50% to 100% off the actual value.
- Fair estimates : This is a very good estimate. Ideally it will be about 25% to 50% off the actual value.
Deciding which of these three different estimates one can provide for a task is very crucial. Fair estimates are possible when you are very familiar with what needs to be done and you have done it many times before. This sort of estimate is possible when doing maintenance type work where the fixes are known, or one is adding well-understood functionality that has been done before. Rough estimates are possible when working with well-understood needs and one is familiar with domain and technology issues. In all other cases, the best we can hope for before we begin is order of magnitude estimates. These estimates are very valuable because they give the organization and project team some idea of what the project is going to need in terms of time, resources, and money. It is better to know that something is going to take between two and six months to do rather than have no idea how much time it will take. In many cases, we may be able to give more detailed estimates for some items rather than others. For example, we may be able to provide a rough estimate of the infrastructure we need but only an order of magnitude estimate of the people and time needed.
We at Anurakti are well versed in various estimating techniques like Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Source Lines of Code (SLOC) & Function Point Analysis (FPA) and can provide you with services as per your requirements.
Function Point Analysis (FPA) is a method to measure the functional size of an information system. FPA measures the functional size by looking at the (functional) transactions and (logical) data files that are relevant to the user in the business. The unit of measurement is “function points”; the functional size of an information system is expressed by a number of function points. Function points are a good measure of the functional size of an information system; the unit of measurement “function points” can be utilized in various ways. FPA can be applied for development, as well as for enhancement projects. FPA is a simple, fast method, which does not require knowledge of computers. Assuming suitable documentation, it does not take much time to perform an FPA. It is estimated that for a system which needs one thousand development hours, an FPA can be performed in about one hour.