TaskEstimation

TaskEstimation.com is meant to be an Estimation Exploration Toolkit. Unlike most tools out there, it does not claim to provide an accurate estimate from the data you feed it. It does not contain complex heuristics or trade secrets that magically lead to an estimation. Instead, if provides basic mathematical tools and an environment to make dataset manipulation easy and enjoyable.

TaskEstimation is not bound to any estimation technique. So long as you can load the input data and know the manipulation to be performed, it can be done. Even the type of input is open. Prefer function points over lines of code? Great. All input is user defined. Calculations are generic, just make sure you understand the manipulations you are trying to perform, and this website is here to help.

Principles

• An estimate must be based on historical data, otherwise it's a glorified guess
• Breaking down the task is part of the process of understanding it, and thus to estimate it
• Improving requires understanding, hence the white box approach
• Trash in, trash out — simple tools and great input beats great tools and poor data any day

Who is it for?

• Programmers who need to verify the feasibility of a task in a given time frame for their superiors
• Entrepreneurs who need to quote on projects and would rather not work for pennies in the end
• Managers who want to double-check the information provided by their employees

What do you need?

• Some mathematical foundations, or a desire to learn
• Time, patience, discipline and a commitment to self improvement
• A capable browser and an OpenID account

How does it work?

1. Enter your tasks and tag them
2. Break them down in smaller units and calculate the costs
3. Use mathematical tools to aggregate costs, filter your dataset to use the right data as comparison and calculate the estimate
4. Once the task is done, update your data to be more accurate in the future

Getting started

• Login
• Read some documentation

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