Estimation or Guesstimation

Generally speaking, estimation is very important aspect in project life cycle. It’s not important while project planning only, but as a project manager estimation is the process which is performed throughout the project life cycle. New changes or scope creep can revise estimation which was performed earlier, so it’s continuous operation required.

Estimation can be done by Project resources who allocated for it or at the initial level when resources are not decided then any subject matter Expert (SME) can perform the estimation. SME can discuss with Quality Assurance team for it or if necessary brainstorming of other experts to get proper estimation.

Sometimes estimation cannot be done instead of that guesstimation is done due to lack of time, management or process. Estimation require proper time to be in detail but sometimes time is not available to estimate so with the help of any past experience or some detail estimation can be done, that’s called guesstimation. If your luck is fine or God is with you then guesstimation can be accurate otherwise it will lead towards wrong estimated time and project cannot be delivered on time.

In mature organisation, project manager will get standard or template for estimation which organisation follows, same time organisation can provide estimation techniques which they follow or prefer, on the contrary some organisation just follow guesstimation for project and where project run with the risk.

To sum up, proper estimation can give you the accurate vision about time, cost and scope with risk management too, while guesstimation can create extra risks for the project and it will lead project towards the failure.