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Estimation – three-point estimation and successive calculation Overview Overview: Earned Value Management Purpose The purpose of the estimating is to: Achieve a satisfactory assessment of the project’s time and resource consumption. Understand uncertainties related to the estimating outputs. Why should you use it Schedules are composed of interrelated tasks, milestones, and deliverables. Tasks are assigned to various project team members to accomplish. Because the project schedule has interdependencies between tasks, and ultimately a critical path (the longest time-path of interdependent tasks through a project), estimates of various tasks affect the end-date. We’d like to have as good an estimate as possible of the time taken and resources required for those tasks. Often the person doing the task may not be able to provide a good estimate. Having various methods or alternatives to generating an estimate can help the project team come up with the best possible estimate. As the project progresses from the concept phase into more intense and detailed planning, large tasks will be broken down into detailed, sub-tasks – resulting in an improved confidence level of the schedule and resource required to complete the project. How to use Since projects are one-time tasks, nothing can be calculated 100% objectively, but there are several methods for producing a good estimate. Estimation can be carried out in many different ways. We can gather data from: Quotes from suppliers Basic numbers and calculations Experience and data from previous projects Comparisons with other tasks Simulations and tests Rough estimates Questioning of several individuals with knowledge of this type of task. One of the main tools is to break down the activities into a higher level of detail. An advantage of this breakdown is that it allows us to divide the activities into various types with different levels of uncertainty. Content of this white-paper Activity types Proce