Requirements Estimation Tool Page 1 of 12

Instructions

Quick Start
1 Access the Summary worksheet. Fill in the yellow cells with relevant numbers.
2 Access the Assumptions worksheet. Review the standards in the yellow cells. Change them if necessary.
3 Return to the summary worksheet and review your totals.

Detailed Information
Color Coding Key
Yellow cell values should be entered specific to this project
Light gray cells are either N/A or reference yellow cells and usually do not need to be edited
Dark gray cells are calculated, but can be overridden
Important summations

Summary Worksheet
The Summary worksheet contains project assumptions, effort on a model-by model basis, and total effort.

Input Section

You must fill in the left column of yellow cells. Filling in the the column of yellow cells to the right is optional.

Project duration is the total expected length of the project. It is used to estimate how many weeks beyond the
requirements effort are needed, and is used in calculating BA support needed for that timeframe. It does not have to be
entered.

Copyright © 2013 by Karl Wiegers and Seilevel

 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 2 of 12
Instructions

Requirements Work Duration is the total expected length of time spent on requirements in a project. It is used to
estimate time for status reporting (since it is throughout this period). And it is used for estimating how many BAs are
needed based on the total work and desired duration.

Total project budget is only used as another means of estimating how much should be spent on the requirements effort.

Number of developers and type of project are used to estimate how many BAs are needed on the project in general.

Estimates Section

This section provides estimates on a model-by-model basis, based on the Inputs section and the Assumptions worksheet.

Total Effort Section

The calculations tell you the total work under "Total Effort" based on pre-set formulas.
The total BA count is calculated based on the duration of requirements work input at the top.

If you specified in the inputs that the team is remote, then a 10% buffer is added to the hours for ineffective time use.

The number of BAs you can estimate needing based on number of developers is at the bottom of the summary tab.

The budget for BAs can be estimated as a percent of the total project.

Copyright © 2013 by Karl Wiegers and Seilevel

 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 3 of 12
Instructions

The estimated BA cost based on the requirements work total is calculated as well.
The BA support cost through the rest of the project is calculated based on number of BAs needed per number of
developers.

Assumptions Worksheet
The Assumption worksheet contains the assumptions which are used determine the average effort to complete each
model or requirements artifact.
You do not have to change any of the assumption, but you may.
The yellow cells are all standards, but can be altered.

Estimated Model counts and Assumptions Section

At the top left, the number of models produced is calculated.

Detailed Calculations for each activity Section

Details below are the estimates to create each individual model or element.

Suggested Time - Low and - High are numbers you can use to decide on the value used in column E.

Element is any object or sub object used in the estimate. Element could be a use case, a step in a use case, a process
flow, a button in a screen, or a link in a screen.

This spreadsheet is Copyright © 2013 by Karl Wiegers and Seilevel.

Permission is granted to use, modify, and distribute this spreadsheet file.
More information about the model can be found in Software Requirements, 3rd Edition by Karl Wiegers and Joy Beatty,
Microsoft Press, 2013

Copyright © 2013 by Karl Wiegers and Seilevel

 Requirements Estimation Tool
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Summary

Yellow cell values should be entered specific to this project

Light gray cells are either N/A or reference yellow cells and usually do not need to be edited
Dark gray cells are calculated, but can be overridden
Important summations
Input
Quantity Items Quantity Items
100 Existing pages of documentation for review $ 2,000,000 Total project budget
1 Existing systems being updated or replaced $125 BA blended hourly cost
52 Stakeholders COTS Type of project (Standard or COTS)
50 Interfacing Systems - small systems 8 Number of developers
2 Interfacing Systems - medium systems No Is your team remote?
1 Interfacing Systems - large systems 56 Project duration? (weeks)
50 Process Flows and/or Use Cases 28 Requirements work duration? (weeks)
2 Business Data Diagrams
100 Screens/User interfaces
100 Reports
Summary Total Effort Comparison
% of total Ratio of dev Activity
project to BAs based
Number of business analysts (BAs) 2 2.7 3.1 *Excludes time off
BA budget for requirements work $ 300,000 $ 373,000 $ 435,000
BA budget for project duration $ 600,000 $ 747,000 $ 869,000
Estimates
Hours by Minutes
Category Activity Category Hours Units Minutes Notes
per unit
Project Start and Management 219
Requirements plans 7 420 N/A 420
Status reporting 119 255 28 7140 Uses requirements project duration above
Requirements architecture 5 300 N/A 300
Setup requirements repository 10 570 N/A 570
Project kick-off 20 1200 N/A 1200
Functions/Features organization 16 960 N/A 960
Traceability Links 35 1.00 2100 2100
Existing documentation review 3 2.00 100 200
Existing systems review 4 240 1 240
 Requirements Estimation Tool
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Summary

Hours by Minutes
Category Activity Category Hours Units Minutes Notes
per unit
Model Requirements - People 1297
Process Flows and/or Use Cases 547 656 50 32800
Org Charts 11 654 1 654
User Stories 720 216 200 43200
Decision Trees 19 230 5 1150
 Requirements Estimation Tool
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Summary

Hours by Minutes
Category Activity Category Hours Units Minutes Notes
per unit
Model Requirements - System 836
System Context Diagrams or Ecosystem Maps 13 750 1 750
System Interface Models - small systems 250 300 50 15000
System Interface Models - medium systems 33 1000 2 2000
System Interface Models - large systems 40 2400 1 2400
Display-Action-Response Tables 500 300 100 30000 Uses number of screens, above

Model Requirements - Data 1126

Business Data Diagrams 7 210 2 420
Data Flow Diagrams 50 495 6 2970
Data Dictionaries 60 180 20 3600
State Tables 5 270 1 270
State Diagrams 5 270 1 270
Report Tables 1000 600 100 60000
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Summary

Hours by Minutes
Category Activity Category Hours Units Minutes Notes
per unit
Total Effort
Requirements Work 3477
Remote Team Buffer add-on 0

BA estimate based on activities

Hours of work with buffer 3477
Number of BAs for the Requirements Work 3.1 Assumes input requirements duration, excludes time off
BA cost for requirements work $434,612 Assumes input cost
BA cost for entire project $869,225 Assumes input project duration and cost BA R
BA su

BA estimate as ratio of Developers to BAs

Developers per BA Standard 6
Developers per BA COTS 3
Number of BAs for entire project 2.7
BA cost for requirements work $373,333 Assumes input requirements duration and cost
BA cost for entire project $746,667 Assumes input project duration and cost

BA estimate as % of total budget

Total budget $ 2,000,000
Percent of budget allocated to requirements 15% 15% is industry standard
BA budget for requirements work $ 300,000
Number of BAs for the Requirements Work 2 Assumes input requirements duration and cost
BA budget for project duration $ 600,000 Assumes input project duration and cost
 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 8 of 12
Assumptions

Yellow cell values should be entered specific to this project

Light gray cells are either N/A or reference yellow cells and usually do not need to be edited
Dark gray cells are calculated, but can be overridden
Estimated Model counts and Assumptions
Model Quantity Estimate based on Assumptions (* indicates assumption varies based on #
project size-- Small, Medium, or Large)
User Stories 200 Process Flow Steps in a Process Flow/Use Case 20
Decision Trees 5 Process Flow/Use Case User Stories per Process Flow 4
Data Flow Diagrams 6 BDDs Decision Trees per Process Flow/Use Case 0.1
Data Dictionaries 20 BDDs Decision points in a Decision Tree 10
State Tables 1 BDDs Data objects in a Business Data Diagram 10
State Diagrams 1 BDDs Total objects in a Data Flow Diagram 15
Requirements 700 Process Flow/Use Case State objects to define per Business Data Diagrams 0.5
Business Rules 2100 Process Flow/Use Case States in a state model 10
Number of traces 2100 Process Flow/Use Case DFDs per Business Data Diagrams 3
Actors per Stakeholder 0.33
People in an Org Chart (S:10, M:30, L:50)* 50
# Systems in a System Context Diagram (S:10, M:30, L:50)* 50

Elements in a Screen 15
Elements in a Report 20
Requirements per step in a Process Flow/Use Case 0.7
Business rules per requirement 3
Requirements per Process Flow/Use Case 14
Business rules per Process Flow /Use Case 42
Unique requirements per User Story 4
Traces per requirement (to Process Flow, Screen, User Story) 3

Detailed Calculations for each activity

Section Estimate per Suggested Suggested

Total Number of
Category Activity Subtotal Element Notes Time - Low Time - High
Minutes Elements
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

Project Start and Management

Requirements plans 420
Create Work breakdown structure 180 180 N/A Burndowns for budget and activities 120 240
Complete the methodology checklist 240 240 N/A Use checklists to build plan 120 360
Status reporting 255
Create a weekly status report 60 60 N/A Time per week for status reporting 15 90
Weekly status meeting 60 60 N/A Time per week for status meetings 15 120
Core Team meetings 75 75 N/A Time per week for core team meetings 30 90
 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 9 of 12
Assumptions

Section Estimate per Suggested Suggested

Total Number of
Category Activity Subtotal Element Notes Time - Low Time - High
Minutes Elements
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

Defect review meetings 60 60 N/A Time per week for defect review meetings 30 120
 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 10 of 12
Assumptions

Section Estimate per Suggested Suggested

Total Number of
Category Activity Subtotal Element Notes Time - Low Time - High
Minutes Elements
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

Requirements architecture and repository

Define Requirements Architecture 300 300 300 N/A Setup architecture objects and where the artifacts live 120 480

Setup team repository tools 570 570 570 N/A Setup document repository, requirements tools, and their 180 960
structure
Kicking off project 1200
Project kickoff meetings 360 360 N/A Prep and have meeting 240 480
Project familiarization 240 240 N/A Basic project introduction 90 360
Complete Business Problems and Objectives 600 600 N/A Elicit and document business objectives 120 1200
Organizing Functions/Features 960
Identify all major buckets of functionality 480 480 N/A Identify features, functions, modules, etc. 240 1000
Determine how to organize work 480 480 N/A Make decisions about how to organize all of the work 120 1200
Existing documentation 2
Review existing documentation 2 2 N/A Review a page in a document 0.5 5
Existing systems 240
Get trained in existing or new systems 240 240 N/A Get up to speed on existing system 30 480
Traceability Matrix 1
Traceability Matrix creation 0.5 0.50 N/A Time to link 0.25 3
Traceability Matrix analysis 0.5 0.50 N/A Time per link to find issues or gaps 0.5 3

Model Requirements - People

Org Charts 654
Org Chart elicitation 50 1 50 People within an org chart 0 5
Org Chart creation 100 2 50 1 5
Org Chart internal review 50 1 50 1 3
Org Chart customer review 100 2 50 1 3
Evaluate org charts against stakeholder lists 150 3 50 1 5
Actor Profile creation 102 6 17 3 9
Actor Profile internal review 51 3 17 1 5
Actor Profile customer review 51 3 17 1 5
Process Flows and/or Use Cases 656
Elicitation prep, meet, follow-up 120 120 N/A Sessions breakdown (30 prep, 60 meet, 30 follow-up) 60 180
Process Flow/Use Case creation 60 3 20 Steps within a process flow/use case 1 6
Process Flow/Use Case internal review 60 3 20 1 6
Process Flow/Use Case customer review 80 4 20 1 10
Derive Requirements and business rules 112 2 56 Requirements and business rules per process flow/use case 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 224 4 56 1 10
 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 11 of 12
Assumptions

Section Estimate per Suggested Suggested

Total Number of
Category Activity Subtotal Element Notes Time - Low Time - High
Minutes Elements
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

User Stories 216

User Story elicitation 60 60 N/A Session breakdown (20 prep, 30 meet, 10 follow-up) 30 120
User Story creation 20 20 N/A 10 45
User Story internal review 10 10 N/A 5 30
User Story customer review 30 30 N/A 10 60
Derive Requirements and business rules 32 2 16 Requirements and business rules per user story 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 64 4 16 1 10
Decision Trees 230
Decision Tree creation 10 1 10 Decision points within a decision tree 1 10
Decision Tree internal review 10 1 10 1 5
Decision Tree customer review 30 3 10 1 10
Derive Requirements and business rules 60 2 30 Business rules per decision tree 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 120 4 30 1 10

Model Requirements - System

System Context Diagram (or Ecosystem Map) 750
System Context Diagram elicitation 150 3 50 0 6
System Context Diagram creation 150 3 50 Systems within a context diagram 1 10
System Context Diagram internal review 150 3 50 1 6
System Context Diagram customer review 300 6 50 1 10
Small System Interface Models 300 300 N/A Small custom system, few data pieces 40 400
Medium System Interface Models 1000 1000 N/A 400 2000
Large System Interface Models 2400 2400 N/A Lots of data is passed, lots of interface points 2000 4000
Display-Action-Response models 300
Wireframe creation 60 4 15 Elements within a screen 0 10
Wireframe internal review 30 2 15 1 10
Wireframe customer review 60 4 15 1 20
Display-Action-Response creation 60 4 15 Elements within a screen 2 10
Display-Action-Response internal review 30 2 15 1 5
Display-Action-Response customer review 60 4 15 2 10

Model Requirements - Data

Business Data Diagrams 210
Business Data Diagram elicitation 60 60 N/A Session breakdown (20 prep, 30 meet, 10 follow-up) 30 120
Business Data Diagram creation 60 6 10 Objects within a business data diagram 3 10
Business Data Diagram internal review 30 3 10 1 6
Business Data Diagram customer review 60 6 10 3 10
 Requirements Estimation Tool Page 12 of 12
Assumptions

Section Estimate per Suggested Suggested

Total Number of
Category Activity Subtotal Element Notes Time - Low Time - High
Minutes Elements
(minutes) (minutes) (minutes) (minutes)

Data Flow Diagrams 495

Data Flow Diagram creation 90 6 15 Objects within a data flow diagram 3 10
Data Flow Diagram internal review 45 3 15 1 6
Data Flow Diagram customer review 90 6 15 3 10
Derive Requirements and business rules 90 2 45 Business rules per DFD 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 180 4 45 1 10
Data Dictionaries 180
Data Dictionary creation 60 6 10 Elements within a data dictionary 3 9
Data Dictionary internal review 60 6 10 1 10
Data Dictionary customer review 60 6 10 1 10
State Tables 270
State Table creation 60 6 10 States in a state table 3 9
State Table internal review 30 3 10 1 5
State Table customer review 30 3 10 1 5
Derive Requirements and business rules 60 2 30 Business rules per state table 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 90 3 30 1 10
State Diagrams 270
State Diagram creation 60 6 10 States in a state diagram 3 9
State Diagram internal review 30 3 10 1 5
State Diagram customer review 30 3 10 1 5
Derive Requirements and business rules 60 2 30 Business rules per state diagram 1 6
Review and Update derived requirements 90 3 30 1 10
Report Tables 600
Report Table elicitation 120 120 N/A Sessions breakdown (30 prep, 60 meet, 30 follow-up) 60 180
Report Table creation 120 6 20 Elements in a report 3 10
Report Table internal review 120 6 20 1 5
Report Table customer review 240 12 20 3 20