Course Summary
Learn how to accurately estimate your software development projects
Accurate software estimation is one of the keys to a successful development project. In this class, you will learn how size and complexity are the two components that affect software estimation the most.
What you will get from this course
- 1-day Software Estimation Methods course earns 7 contact hours (PDUs)
- Learn how to accurately estimate your software development projects
- Interactive course provides techniques, best-practices, appropriate use and Monte Carlo simulation
- Flexible schedules and convenient Bay Area locations
Using realistic exercises, you will see how source lines-of-code, function points, and feature points are used as measurements of size. You will also learn how to estimate the complexity of the project, so that you will be better able to control cost, schedule, and effort. You will participate in hands-on exercises such as a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate an actual development project. The course concludes with a presentation on continuous measurement programs that will help you determine if you are staying on track with the estimates.
Duration
1 day.
Audience
Project and program managers, business and IT managers, team leaders and product managers.
Additional Notes
Prerequisities
Each participant will be asked to prepare a profile of a recent or early stage project to be used as a basis for the methodology selection workshop included in the class.
Instructor
Our project management instructors are experience project management consultants with years of real-world experience delivering projects to all types of organizations. All have their PMP certification and are passionate about the art and science of project management. All cPrime Training Center Instructors are required to have excellent student ratings from all our courses.
Why us?
Outline
Pre-Training Activities (1-2 hours):
Participants will be asked to select a current or recent project to be used during course workshop activities. Planning and estimating methods covered in the course will be applied to the selected project.
Training Day Agenda:
- Introductions and Objectives for the Day
- Course Overview
- Why are estimates often wrong? How can they be improved?
- Developing the "first approximation" estimate before detailed requirements are known - context diagrams and function points "lite"
- Workshop 1: Create the "first approximation" estimate
- Develop a "2nd approximation" using "rules of thumb"
- Workshop 2: create the "2nd Approximation" estimate
- "Bottom Up" estimation - work breakdown structures and critical path method
- Workshop 3: create a "bottom up" estimate
- Dealing with uncertainty: "PERT" estimates and Monte Carlo simulation
- Workshop 4: Run through complete Monte Carlo simulation
- Metrics for Success: Using metrics to increase productivity and quality- "Earned Value" lite, defect containment rates
- Estimating Software options
- Next Steps Workshop: Which ideas can you apply to your situation? What steps are required?
