Cone of Uncertainty
I recently spent two days doing an estimation course that was run byConstrux. This was essentially talking about mechanisms to better provide estimates for projects so that it is possible to deliver on time. This is the holy grail of software engineering! This all took place in Bellevue, located near Seattle.
The course was presented bySteve McConnell. It was interesting to meet the man. When I first started working in the industry my boss was touting Code Complete as an excellent reference (to my shame I'm still yet to read it some 10 years later).
So what's this reference to the "Cone of Uncertainty"? It's probably one of the most useful ideas of the course. Essentially it's the idea that when a project starts the project itself is so uncertain that we have a significant error in estimating when we will deliver. As we get further on we can refine and reduce the error providing a more specific project end date range.
Lovely isn't it?
Posted by danmas on April 29, 2008 at 06:23 PM PDT #