May 16, 2011 from gannthead.com – “Here are some common estimating issues that can often negatively impact your project…
- Padding…
- Being overly optimistic…
- Bad requirements…
- Omission…
- Different levels…
- Being put on the spot…
- Forgetting the risk factor…
- Pressure from above…
- Failure to involve the “do-ers”…”
180 View – Estimating is tough and we ask for it all the time from the vendors when assisting our clients in a system selection project. The vendors don’t have enough information when responding to an RFP so they rely on past experience based on similar sized projects and what they think the market will bear or on the budget of the prospect. Later we give the AS-IS business process and invite the short listed vendors to meet with our clients to get a better understanding of scope so they can give a better estimate on the implementation. Unfortunately the vendors often still don’t have enough information to get it right. We suggest that you ask the vendors to break out the project estimate by module and by task. You may find startling differences in their numbers. We also suggest that you ask the vendors to conduct a needs analysis prior to finalizing the deal. One of the objectives of the needs analysis should be a firm quote on the implementation.