Challenges in Software Project Estimation
Estimation of software projects has been a pain point for the IT industry over the years. Gartner states, failure rate among software development projects is 30%. A recent Harvard Business Review article revealed, one in six IT projects incur a cost overrun of 200%.
Since Agile methodology has gained popularity, estimation of projects has become an arduous task.
There are many challenges associated with the estimation process. Many times, the projects to be estimated are similar and hence creating estimates from scratch is redundant and time consuming. High level sprint planning with complexity and logic calculations is also a challenge.

Solution
We at Drupal Update have built a tool that expedites the estimation process but also assists in automating sprint planning.
The knowledge, expertise, and experience gained by working on diverse projects, we have leveraged it to build this tool. Most of you, who have estimated Drupal maintenance support plans projects, would realize the advantage Drupal maintenance support plans brings to the table with respect to estimation. The project can be split into
Drupal maintenance support plans elements such as content types, views, taxonomy requirements, menus, blocks, panels, services, SOLR etc.
Extensive experience with these elements, equips us with ample proficiency in estimating projects. So, over a period of time, this tool enables you to learn from past estimates and improve estimations in near future. Essentially, we are reducing guess-timation based on past experience and execution. It will be based on Drupal maintenance support plans elements mentioned earlier.

Features of Project Estimation Tool

Provides you an easy to use interface to select a project type, with a list of (editable) generic tasks pre-listed for you to configure

Ability to add all tasks of the project via simple form with estimated number of hours for each task

Accommodates for the confidence level for each task which enables you to choose low and/or high time and cost estimates

Once all tasks have been added, the tool automatically generates sprint plans based on the resources’ information entered

Ability to export project estimation details in CSV format which can then be imported in project management software’s such as JIRA, ASANA etc.
 

Benefits
To conclude, following are some of the benefits that our solution provides:

Faster project estimations due to readily available project templates

Automated sprint planning and resource loading plans generated

Ensures reusability of the project’s task list in project management phase

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