In this last article of the series, I’ll cover a potpourri of other estimating topics including dealing with poorly defined work and what to do when management thinks it should cost less or take less time.

Dealing with Poorly Defined Work
In order to introduce the basic concepts of effort estimating, we limited our discussion to [...] Read more »

This is the penultimate article in a series of five on effort estimating. In the first, I focused on definitions since many people use terms such as estimate and budget as synonyms when, in fact, they are very different. Here is a brief recap of some key definitions:
Estimate. An informed assessment of an uncertain event. [...] Read more »

As the Walrus said, “the time has come.” Rather than just complaining about the over-hyping of the PMP, let me return to the idea of “performance based competency assessment.” I got started on that topic several weeks ago, then left it for my series on estimating. Although the estimating series isn’t quite done, this seems [...] Read more »

Preparing Three-Point Range Estimates
The mechanics of preparing three-point range estimates, particularly if you are working with team members who have never used the technique before, are important. And just a reminder: we are still dealing with effort estimates; duration estimates come later.

Working one-on-one. Let’s again start with a simple case where you need an effort [...] Read more »

This is the second in a series of articles on estimating effort. In the first, I focused on definitions since I find that many people use terms such as estimate and budget as synonyms when, in fact, they are very different. Here is a brief recap of the key definitions that I will use:
Estimate. An [...] Read more »

This series of articles is extracted from a similar series I wrote for Projects@Work a couple of years ago. I’m posting it here in reaction to my review of Josh’s articles on Earned Value where he (in my opinion) used the term “estimate” when he should have said  ”budget.” Many of the terms related [...] Read more »

My 19 year old son, Michael, stares at me blankly when I mention the King’s Gambit or the Ruy Lopez opening. He knows nothing about chess notation and has never heard of Tal or Kasparov.

But he beats me consistently. I have the knowledge; he is a better performer. Read more »