THE PENDING DRAFT

Estimating is one of the harder parts of any web business. Estimating without requirements is even harder. I don’t know about you but i often found myself just quoting something, out of the blue, without even realizing how wrong my numbers where, only to find out later on when it’s already too late. Over the years i learned how to phrase my offerings and contracts more precise, educating my clients that some things cannot be known at the beginning of a project, that they understand that those estimated hours really are only estimates etc. but yet it still feels wrong if you have to come back to a client and let them know you need double or more time than what was initially agreed upon. Proper contracts are important, but they only bring you so far. Things happen, things out of your responsibility will go wrong and even those things should also be taken into account when estimating your time. If you run a business you need to be as good as you can get about estimating properly, if you like it or not.

Chris Lema, who wrote a lot of brilliant things about pricing and estimating before, shared his “3 point estimating approach” which he describes as follows:

I use a 3-point estimating approach that I know others use. But often when I come across other’s estimates I find that they’re using the three points differently than I do. And the result is that if you use three incorrect points, your estimate will be wrong as well.

He explains in more detail what he means by this in a short video and it’s one of the best explanations on the topic i came across so far.

Chris Lema – My Approach to Estimating without Requirements