Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Cost or Schedule

Do people ask you for information about project estimates, either for the schedule or the cost? Do you feel uncertain about your estimates? Would you like some ways to estimate and options for providing that information?

Estimates are guesses. That doesn't prevent people from wanting to know the estimate. You can make better estimates, predictions, and increase their usefulness and accuracy.

Learn how to think about estimates, make better estimates, and update the estimate when reality hits.

Here is the table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. What Estimates Are
3. Why Do We Estimate Anyway?
4. Software is Learning, Not Construction
5. Think About Estimation
6. How to Estimate
7. Rolling Wave Planning
8. There is No Correct Estimation Model
9. But I Need to Know When the Project Will Be Done
10. Use All Four Parts of Project Estimation
11. Show Your Status and Update Your Estimate
12. Future Fixes
13. Troubleshooting Your Estimation Problems
14. Avoid Multitasking
15. Avoid Student Syndrome
16. Estimation Units Predict Schedule Slippage
17. Edit Those Epics
18. What You Can Do For Estimation
19. Estimation Depends On…
20. Estimating Testing Time
21. Need to Learn More about the Work You’re Doing? Spike It!
22. Use Targets as Estimates
23. How to Avoid Three Big Estimation Traps
24. Understanding Multitasking and the Cost of Delay on Estimation
25. What You Know About Estimation Now
26. Glossary
27. References

Buy the book now:

Leanpub

You can find the book on Amazon, too, ebook, audio and print.

I'm delighted the Pragmatic Bookshelf is carrying the book also.

See the book at Barnes and Noble. Or, in iBooks: Predicting the Unpredictable – Johanna Rothman (you should see the audio book there, too.)

If you bought the audio book and you are looking for the supplemental materials, here is the link: SupplementalMaterialsPredicting.pdf.