Description:
Short Description
A practical guide for software developers and development teams this book features effective and understandable formulas procedures and heuristics to help organizations improve their project cost estimates.

Long Description
Often referred to as the "black art" because of its complexity and uncertainty software estimation is not as hard or mysterious as people think. However the art of how to create effective cost and schedule estimates has not been very well publicized. While the average software organization can struggle with project costs that run double their original estimates some of the more sophisticated organizations achieve results with estimation errors as low as 5-10%. These best-in-class organizations use scientific techniques that are not cost-effective however making them of limited use to most software development organizations. To address these issues Software Estimation focuses on the art of software estimation and provides a proven set of procedures and heuristics that software developers technical leads and project managers can apply to their projects. Instead of arcane treatises and rigid modeling techniques award-winning author Steve McConnell gives practical guidance to help organizations achieve basic estimation proficiency and lay the groundwork to continue improving project cost estimates. This book is organized from simple tips to more advanced ideas; it does not avoid the more hairy mathematical estimation approaches but the non-mathematical reader will find plenty of useful guidelines without getting bogged down in complex formulas.

Positioning Statement:
Practical guide to learning best practice software estimation skills for the real world.

Unique Selling Proposition:
Unlike other books that focus exclusively on the science of estimation including rigid modeling techniques and continuous feedback loops that are not cost effective to most organizations this unique guide offers practical tested hands-on advice for estimating software development costs in the real world. It is written by the award-winning author of Code Complete.

Key Book Benefits:
• Delivers practical insights about a critical subject too-often obscured by academic jargon
• Two-color graphics present mathematical information in an easy-to-understand format
• Provides specific practices that can be used immediately by any software development organization
• Features numerous to-the-point tips about the estimation process as well as individual steps to creating successful estimates