Software Estimation in Depth

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Software Estimation in Depth

upcoming public offerings
9/13/2010 - 9/14/2010 Steve McConnell ($1,395)	register now
Register by August 13th and pay $1,195 (save $200)

email us about private offerings of this seminar

course overview

This course provides many useful rules of thumb and procedures for creating software estimates ("the art of estimation") and briefly introduces mathematical approaches to creating software project estimates ("the science of estimation"). This course features extensive lab work to give you hands-on experience creating many different kinds of software estimates--for large, medium, and small projects as well as calibrating estimates to be accurate for your specific development environment. You will learn techniques for making sure estimation is treated as an analytical rather than a political process, and you will explore how to negotiate effectively with other project stakeholders (such as marketing, management and your clients) so that everyone wins. This seminar is based on the best selling book Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art, by Steve McConnell. Two days.

who should attend

This seminar will be useful to project managers, product managers, program managers, technical leads, software engineers, developers and anyone else who wants to learn to effectively estimate software costs and schedules.

the seminar includes the following topics

Estimation Background

Estimation "art" vs. estimation "science"
Estimates, targets, and commitments
Kinds of estimates: macro vs. micro, top-down vs. bottom up, algorithmic vs. heuristic
State of the art and limits on estimation accuracy
Surprise: Estimation's real role on software projects

Estimation Process

Basic steps in creating a software estimate
Estimating agile projects vs. estimating plan-driven projects
Best estimation approaches by project phase
Estimate refinement
Standardized estimating procedures for agile and plan-driven projects

Estimation Error

The good, the bad, and the ugly: evaluating estimates
Errors in the estimation process
Sources of project uncertainty
Software's Cone of Uncertainty

Popular Estimation Methods

Off-the-cuff estimation
Using expert judgment successfully
Wide-band Delphi
Cocomo II

Better Estimation Methods

Estimation by analogy
Decomposition
Proxy-based estimation
Estimation by function points
The PERT formula
Putnam's Method

Special Issues in Scope Estimation

Counting, Computing, and Judgment
Fuzzy Logic
T-Shirt Sizing
Software's diseconomy of scale

Special Issues in Effort Estimation

Productivity variations across types of software
Calibration
Industry data
Historical company data
Project data
Estimating individuals' work

Special Issues in Schedule Estimation

The schedule equation
Effect of schedule compression and expansion
The "impossible zone"

Automated Estimation Support

Product demos
Tool capabilities
Interplay of the art and science of software estimation

Human Roles in Estimation

Estimate presentation techniques
How to explain and defend an estimate
Estimation and negotiation

available instructors

Earl Beede, Steve Tockey, Steve McConnell, Jerry Deville, Matt Peloquin

pmi information

Scope Management, Time Management and Cost Management

12 PDU

PMI PDU Reporting Instructions

questions?