PROJECT MANAGEMENT: TIME ESTIMATES

AND PLANNING
~ By Liz Cassidy

Accurate time estimation is a skill essential for good project management. It is

important to get time estimates right for two main reasons:

1. Time estimates drive the setting of deadlines for delivery and planning of
projects, and hence will impact on other peoples assessment of your
reliability and competence as a project manager.
2. Time estimates often determine the pricing of contracts and hence the
profitability of the contract/project in commercial terms.

Often people underestimate the amount of time needed to implement projects.

This is true particularly when the project manager is not familiar with the task to
be carried out. Unexpected events or unscheduled high priority work may not be
taken into account. Project managers also often simply fail to allow for the full
complexity or potential errors and stuff ups, involved with a project. The 2004-
2006 Wembley Stadium project in London is often used as an example,
although there are countless others of less profile.
Time estimates are important as inputs into other techniques used to organise
and structure all projects. Using good time estimation techniques may reduce
large projects to a series of smaller projects.

Step 1: Understand the Project Outcome

First you need to fully understand what it is you need to achieve. (Refer to my
article; Project Management - Begin with the end in mind). Review the
project/task in detail so that there are no "unknowns." Some difficult-to-
understand, tricky problems that take the greatest amount of time to solve. The
best way to review the job is to just list all component tasks in full detail.

Step 2: Estimate Time

When you have a detailed list of all the tasks that you must achieve to complete
the project then you can begin to estimate how long each will take.

Make sure that you also allow time for project management administration,
detailed project, liaison with outside bodies resources and authorities, meetings,
quality assurance developing supporting documentation or procedures
necessary, and training.

Also make sure that you have allowed time for:

 Other high urgency tasks to be carried out which will have priority over
this one.
 Accidents and emergencies.
 Internal/external meetings.
 Holidays and sickness in key staff/stakeholders.
 Contact with other customers, suppliers and contractors.
 Breakdowns in equipment.
 Missed deliveries by suppliers.
 Interruptions by customers, suppliers, contractors, family, pets, co-
workers, etc.
  Others priorities and schedules e.g. local government planning processes.
 Quality control rejections, etc.
 Unanticipated events (e.g. renovating the bathroom finding white-
ants/termites in the walls).

These factors may significantly lengthen the time and cost needed to complete a
project.

If the accuracy of time estimates is critical, you will find it effective to develop
a systematic approach to including these factors. If possible, base this on past
experience. In the absence of

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 PRODUCT STRATEGY
 DEVELOPMENT
 TECH

Challenge us!
 How to Estimate Software Development Time
Accurately?
 PRODUCT STRATEGY

Andrii Bondarenko Tech Journalist @ Stormotion

Content:
 1. 🤔 WHY DO WE NEED TO ESTIMATE SOFTWARE PROJECTS?
 2. 📉 WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO MAKE A PERFECT ESTIMATION?
 3. ✅ HOW DO WE ESTIMATE TIME FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT IN
STORMOTION?
 4. ⚙️TOP ESTIMATION SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES
 5. 🎁 BONUS: READY-MADE SOFTWARE ESTIMATIONS BY THE STORMOTION
TEAM
 6. 💡 TAKEAWAYS

When we at Stormotion start working with a new client, he

usually asks us to make a software development time estimation.
We also prepare it for our potential customers who drop us a
letter with details about their project and willingness to cooperate.

However, time estimation in software development isn’t that fast

& easy as it may seem. This process requires experience,
knowledge and includes hidden pitfalls which we’ll teach you to
avoid today. Let’s start!
Despite it may look simple, an estimation process is quite a challenging task (image by
Lukáš Straňák)

If you already know all benefits of a good estimate, move right to

the practical part!

🤔 Why Do We Need to Estimate Software

Projects?
Properly made software estimations are quite useful at the
planning stage and further. They allow developing a realistic scale
of efforts required on a specific project-phase. This usually
includes:

1. The time needed for the development.

2. The number of people who should be
involved into the project to deliver it on
time and their positions
(FrontEnd/BackEnd Developers, QA
Engineers and so on).
3. The budget range for the Web- or Mobile
App (usually calculated as the development
total time multiplied by an hourly rate).
Estimates provide many useful info (image by brian hurst)

As a rule of thumb, software development time is the number of

hours which will be required to implement a requirement of the
Product Owner. Such a requirement can be for example: a feature,
a user story etc. The sum of hours needed to implement all the
requirements makes up the estimate of the whole app.

Why do you need this info?

Estimations are quite useful for all kinds of projects, including the
ones that use agile-based frameworks.

Despite the classic Scrum approach doesn’t have an estimation

stage in its structure, this kind of information turns out to be
extremely helpful when you need to distribute features from the
backlog between sprints for your remote team.

Scrum sprints usually aren’t changeable after the work starts. It

means that estimates can help your Product Owner prioritize
feature development and group them in such a way that allows
delivering an increment on time.
Estimates help correctly prioritize feature development (image by Austin Golownia)

The same is true for the Kanban framework!

Since it’s based on the idea of continuous development, your team

should constantly have enough tasks to keep working. The main
challenge for a Product Owner is to prioritize them according to
the business goals, deadlines, available resources etc.

But to prioritize it correctly, you’d better know how much time

and efforts development of each feature can take. That’s when a
good estimation comes in handy! With its help you’ll be able to
create a development queue that matches your capabilities.

Moreover, since cycle time is a key metric for Kanban teams, an

estimation will let you check whether the team does well or goes
off the track.

Read Also How to Prioritize the Feature Development

Let’s review several real-life examples from Stormotion clients:

📂 Case ✅ How software development time estimation helped

An estimation provided him with info on both total development

One of our clients got a limited
costs as well as the price of each specific user flow. Thus, he
Angel Funding – €30,000. Is it
found out that his budget meets all his needs and none of the
enough to build an app MVP?
features should be removed at the MVP-Stage.

After estimating software development time, we found out that the

development required 2.5 months with next support on a 10-hours-
An e-Commerce needed to convert
per-week basis.
a mobile app from iOS to Android.
What is the best way to do so?
So we recommended him working with an agency (since it was
more reasonable) which saved him money in the long run.

Our German client needed to hire a

Our estimation clarified the scope of work, helped to understand
remote developer to supplement his
the needed amount of time to perform all the tasks and, therefore,
In-House team for one specific
correctly plan the budget and timeline for the project.
project.

How Can Software Estimations Be Useful for Both

Parties?
Estimates provide value to both sides of the development process
in one or another way:

👩‍💼 For the client 👨‍💻 For the team

Provides info on the approximate time required to complete

It helps to delineate the scope of the
the project. This is especially important for projects with strict
work and set adequate deadlines inside
deadlines (certain promises to customers, a planned
the team.
presentation during a particular industry event).

Used to define the optimal number of

Provides info on the approximate cost range of development
developers needed to do all the work
(and whether it fits the current budget).
on time according to the contract.

Software development time estimation

Allows both parties to manage budget expectations - client helps to calculate planning metrics
knows the budget in the best and worst case. (like cycle time in Kanban or velocity
in Scrum).

As you can see, a good estimation provides some value to all

shareholders. However, creating one isn’t an easy task. Let me
explain why.

📉 Why Is It so Difficult to Make a Perfect

Estimation?

Despite many call estimations none other than predictions,

they’re not the same as unjustified guesses. A correctly prepared
estimate is always based on knowledge and experience of the team
who is writing it.
However, when you try to estimate time for software
development, it sometimes looks like this:

 How much time would it take to ride from

point A to point B?
 2 hours.
 By bicycle.
 6 hours.
 On a country road.
 8 hours.
 It’s a moonless night.
 10 hours.
 It’s snowing.
 12 hours.
 You haven’t slept for 2 days.
 …
Estimations sometimes look like that story about the bicycle (Zamir)

This story can go on and on, and the estimation will change every
time when the new condition is set. And this is what often
happens when you’re estimating software development time.

So, the first reason is that any developer doesn’t have a 100%
protection from unforeseen issues with performance, libraries,
environment, architectural imperfections, APIs integration and so
on.
However, unforeseen issues don’t relate only to the technical side.
We’re all human beings that can get sick, have an emergency case
or anything else.

Second, it may be difficult to estimate time for software

development because of estimator’s individual characteristics.
Every developer, depending on his experience, knowledge, general
productivity and even physical or mental state at this exact
moment will have a different working pace.

Image by Aleksandar Savic

However, it’s quite reasonable that clients shouldn’t pay 3 times
more because someone works 3 times slower than an average
developer. To prevent this, estimates are usually reviewed and
corrected (to be more justified) by a more experienced tech-
person (as a rule of thumb, a Senior).

Third, it’s difficult to estimate software projects precisely because

sometimes changes come from the client’s side, too. For
example, you decided to implement additional functionality or, on
the contrary, to remove some pre-planned features.

However, all of the above doesn’t mean that it’s absolutely

impossible to make a credible time estimation in software
development. Look how this process is organized in our
Stormotion HQ!

✅ How Do We Estimate Time for Software

Development in Stormotion?

Since after an initial call we’re replying to all estimation requests

which we receive - our team has designed a specific workflow for
answering them.
Step 1: Preparation

Before estimating software development time we need some input

- information that can help us understand the ground features of
the project.

At the first stage we gather as much information as possible (image by maryanne)

We usually get it from 2 main sources:

 1. From the data provided by the client: this
includes Mockups, Wireframes, Use Cases,
User Stories etc.
2. From the client itself: during an initial
video call via Skype or Hangouts - we
discuss the project in general and update
details.

Then our tech-crew processes all this data and uses it to draw the
first version of the estimate - a rough one.

Step 2: Rough Estimate

This kind of estimate is usually prepared within 24 hours and

consists of 2 parts - Min and Max Estimates (or Best Case and
Worst Case Scenarios).

Since it’s prepared using limited info about the project, it’s
difficult to provide the client with a 100% accurate breakdown.
Instead, we offer 2 figures that indicate both the highest and the
lowest possible development time and costs.
Rough estimate provides many benefits to both developers and clients (image by Laura
Reen)

The more information we manage to gather during the first step,

the better our estimate is going to be. It will let us face a lower
level of uncertainty and, thus, reduce the range between the
highest-lowest figures.

Tip: If you earlier had an experience with a project

similar to the one you’re working on now, you may
compare them and use it as a ground for your
estimation. When reviewing the old project, take into
account actually spent (and not estimated) time.

Rough Estimates are essential for our clients since they help to
understand the real scope, length and budget range of work.

Then, if everything is fine and our calculation matches the client’s

budget - we’re either moving to the Discovery Phase (in case there
are some tech-challenges which need deeper research) or move to
signing the contract right away.

Step 3: Discovery Phase

Sometimes, if the client has no info about the project except some
use-cases (e.g. no wireframes), or there is a hard API or
technology, which we need to research before giving a cost-
indicator we propose our client a Discovery Phase, which lasts 1-2
weeks.

During this time we hold a few more video conversations with our
client, develop our own wireframes, prepare an interactive
Marvel/Invision prototype (like the ones in our articles about
Pocket Promoter and Hotel App Development).
During the Discovery Phase we examine the project from A to Z (image by Nick Slater)

Also, we pay special attention to tech challenges that may occur

during development - for example, how we’re going to implement
machine learning side or integrate non-common APIs.

Pro’ estimation software development tip: if any task

takes more than 8 hours we split it into sub-tasks. When
making a Rough Estimate we try not to exceed the limit
of 30 hours for 1 task.
Eventually, our client receives the final detailed version of the
software estimate with the most realistic figures.

P. S. We’re going to dedicate a special article to the Discovery

Phase so stay tuned.

⚙️Top Estimation Software Development

Approaches

Now we reach the part of the article with practical tips. This is
what you came for, isn’t it?

Despite estimations always have a single aim, ways to reach them

can be different.

Approach # 1: Classic One

The first approach is the most common and widely used since it’s
pretty fast, easy and understandable. It usually involves 2 people:
the one who will work on an app and the one who will do the
estimation of software development (preferably a person not
related to the project).
Why shouldn’t it be a single person? Despite it may seem quite
logical that the estimation is done by someone who will then work
on this project (since this person understands own capabilities
better than anyone) this is not the best approach.

The classic approach is one of the most used across the globe (image by Anton Fritsler
(kit8))

The problem is that when developers estimate software

development time of their own projects they’re usually disposed to
put more hours than it really takes. Actually, it doesn’t even
matter why it happens - because they just want to work more
slowly and get more money from you or because they want to have
additional time to solve unexpected issues.

So the best solution is to involve another tech-guy, who can write

the estimation for the person which will perform the work.

This specialist should be more experienced (a Junior/Middle can’t

make an estimation for a Senior, but a Senior can make one for
both of them) and interested in an objective result. His workflow
consists of the following steps:

1. Clearly understand the scope of work. The

developer should list all the tasks in any
convenient form - in general or split them
into groups of sub-tasks.
2. Estimate software development time for
each feature, taking into consideration
experience, productivity and other
characteristics of the person who will work
on this project.
3. Sum up the numbers and check whether
the final figure for the whole project looks
realistic.
4. If needed, review it once more together
with the developer and make corrections.

This approach is widely used by our team as well.

P.S. It’s also possible for an estimate to be written by
someone who will then work with it, but it always should
be checked by another, more experienced and objective
person.

Moreover, as you could notice in our articles about app

development, we usually try to break down the tasks into smaller
sub-tasks to make our rough project estimates more accurate.
Take it as a tip 😉

Approach # 2: Planning Poker

If you have a few developers working on the same project, the

classic approach may work not that well. Instead, you can ask
your Agile team to prepare software development time estimation
jointly.

Such an approach would be called Planning Poker or Scrum

Poker.

In this case, each developer has special cards with values on them
(for example, 0, 1/2, 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89). The numbers
represent Story Points or any other items that indicate how
difficult/long it is to create the feature. Later these cards will be
used for voting.
An example of poker planning cards (image by Andrew Millar)

The whole estimation software development process goes as

follows:

1. The Product Owner describes a feature or

presents a User Story to developers.
2. Estimators discuss the feature, ask
questions to the Product Owner.
 3. When the discussion is finished, each
developer privately selects the card to
estimate the feature.
4. Cards are revealed. If all estimators have
chosen the same cards, that figure becomes
the estimate. If there are some differences,
they’re discussed and then voted again and
again until all the estimators don’t pick the
same value to estimate the feature.

It’s important to notice, that all the decisions are made

by discussing and through consensus - not by averaging
all the values after the first round.

Scrum Poker has a few significant advantages which turned it into

one of the most popular software development time estimation
techniques:

 First, it brings together several experts -

each with his unique experience - that
helps estimate even the most complex
tasks.
 Second, since all the results are achieved
through a dialogue, this approach improves
the accuracy of the estimates and justifies
it.
🎁 Bonus: Ready-Made Software Estimations
by the Stormotion Team

Our regular readers and newsletter subscribers know, that each

Stormotion’s article about app development is supplemented with
an estimation.

As we mentioned it earlier, these estimations are true only for our

developers and only for the apps described in the articles. If you
want to see the full detailed estimation, click on the name of the
app and you’ll be redirected to the appropriate page:

Approximate Time (in

App
hours)

🚙 Car Navigation App Like Waze 1030

💬 Snapchat Clone App 1295

👛 App For Retail Business 440*

🏨 Hotel Booking App 425*

🛵 Food Delivery App (customer, courier and 509; 334; 139

web apps)

🍽️Restaurant App 412-526*

👩‍⚕️Doctor Appointment App 660-850

🏡 Real Estate App Like Zillow 648*

 Approximate Time (in
App
hours)

🧘‍♂️Meditation App Like Headspace 490-688*

💪 Fitness App Like Fitbit 340-790*

💸 Bitcoin Wallet App 560*

🎉 Event App 435*

❤️Dating App Like Tinder 922

🍲 Cooking (Recipe) App 360*

*- without BackEnd

💡 Takeaways

These were our insights on time estimation in software

development. They will be useful for Agile teams no matter what
framework - Scrum or Kanban - they use. Also, estimates are
helpful to use as a bussines owner since they make the scope of
work and possible budget more understandable.

If there are any questions left, feel free to drop us a line!

We hope that our experience and tips will help you to

create a perfect estimate for your future projects. Also,
don’t forget that you can get a free estimate from the
Stormotion team within 24 hours. All you have to do is
just contact us by hitting the button below.

Estimate Your Project in 24 Hours!

Rate this Article:

(49 ratings, average: 4.7 out of 5)

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Systems Engineering
System Analysis & Control
System Analysis and Control manages and controls the overall Systems Engineering Process. This activity identifies the work to
be performed and develops the schedules and costs estimates for the effort. It coordinates all activities and assures that all are
operating from the same set of requirements, agreements and design iteration. It’s the center for configuration management
throughout the systems engineering process. [1]
 SMC Systems Engineering Handbook, Figure
19 – System Analysis and Control
System Analysis and Control (see Figure Above) interacts with all the other activities of the Systems Engineering Process. It
evaluates the outputs of the other activities and conducts independent studies to determine which of the alternate approaches is
best suited to the application. It determines when results of one activity require the action of another activity and directs the
action to be performed. The initial analyses performed in this activity are the basis for the Systems Engineering Plan (SEP) and
the systems engineering entries in the Integrated Master Plan (IMP) which define the overall systems engineering effort. From
the SEP and IMP, the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) is developed to relate the IMP events and SEP processes to calendar
dates. [1]
As the process progresses, trade-off studies and system/cost effectiveness analyses are performed in support of the evaluation and
selection processes of the other activities. Risk identification / Risk Mitigation studies are conducted to aid in Risk Management.
Analyses also identify critical parameters to be used in progress measurement. The management activity directs all operations
and also performs Configuration Management (CM), Interface Management (IM) and data management (DM). It specifies the
performance parameters to be tracked for progress measurement. It conducts reviews and reports progress. [1]

The information from System Analysis and Control is a major part of the systems engineering process database that forms the
process output. The analysis activity provides the results of all analyses performed, identifies approaches considered and
discarded, and the rationales used to reach all conclusions. The selected preferred alternatives are recorded with the associated
criteria and methodology for selection. [1]
– Step 1: Requirements Analysis
– Step 2: System Analysis and Control
– Step 3: Functional Analysis Allocation
– Step 4: Design Synthesis
AcqLinks and References:
 [1] SMC Systems Engineering Primer & Handbook – Chapter 2, page 52 

Updated: 7/17/2017

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