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Today, we are talking about the Project Estimation. Do you know that over 66% of projects overrun costs? In this article, we will describe a software estimation process that helps to avoid overspending. On our channel, we share thoughts on recent developments in the tech industry, follow us not to miss new articles.
Why Do We Need Software Estimation?

Estimates provide value to both clients and providers. So, clients get information about the time required to complete the project and the approximate project budget.
For the provider, estimation helps to organize work and set deadlines, define the optimal number of developers and calculate planning metrics.
Having nearly 10 years experience in estimating software projects, we are excited to share some ideas.
Software Project Estimation Process
#1 Define a Project's Complexity
#2 Add a Risk Buffer
#3 "Time Eaters"
#4 Predict the Team Capacity
#5 Write User Stories

#6 Break each story down into a series of tasks
Each one has an estimate of story points. Story points are units of measure used to estimate the effort required to implement a piece of work. A nice way to assign story points to tasks you are going to perform is to use the planning poker. For that:
- Give a set of poker cards to each team member.
- Name the task and let each team member choose one card.
- Let team members explain why they have chosen that number particularly for story points.
Don’t forget that only those who are responsible for completing tasks can vote for story points.
#7 Calculate the Project Duration
Last but not least is to combine all the knowledge you have gained and to split the whole project into sprints.
Gathering the findings of the steps from above, you’ll get the formula:
Duration of the project = Overall task time estimation (which is E) + E*Risk buffer + E*time eaters.

#7 Calculate the Project Duration

Last but not least is to combine all the knowledge you have gained and to split the whole project into sprints.
Gathering the findings of the steps from above, you’ll get the formula:
Duration of the project = Overall task time estimation (which is E) + E*Risk buffer + E*time eaters.
5 Common Project Estimation Techniques
#1 Top-down Estimate
#2 Bottom-up Estimate
#3 Analogous Estimating
#4 Parametric Estimate
#5 Three-Point Estimating
It calculates the average of an optimistic, most likely and pessimistic estimate of the work. This is often known as the PERT:
- Program
- Evaluation
- Review
- Technique
Useful Tools to Track Estimation

Among the most common tools we define:
- Jira with its multiple functions
- Trello for project management and task tracking
- Asana that allows organizing all the details of your work
- Google sheets and MS Excel which are good for calculation purposes.