Infocareer : Analogous Estimating

Analogous estimating is a “Tools and Technique” used in Estimate Activity Duration, Estimate Cost and Estimate Activity Resources processes

Analogous estimating uses a similar past project to estimate the duration, resources or cost of your current project, thus the root of the word: analogy.

Used when there is limited information regarding your current project, an analogous estimate is considered “top-down” and is generally not as accurate as other estimating techniques. Which may vary from -15% to 75%.

Because the project manager’s and possibly the teams’ experience and judgement are applied to the estimating process, it is considered a combination of historical information and expert judgement.

For analogous estimation following is the requirement −

• Data from previous and on-going projects
• Work hours per week of each team member
• Costs involved to get the project completed
• Project close to the current project
• In case the current Project is new, and no past project is similar
• Modules from past projects that are similar to those in current project
• Activities from past projects that are similar to those in current project
• Data from these selected ones
• Participation of the project manager and estimation team to ensure experienced judgement on the estimates.

The project manager and team have to collectively do analogous estimation.

·        Step 1 − Identify the domain of the current project.

·        Step 2 − Identify the technology of the current project.

·        Step 3 − Look in the organisation database if a similar project data is available. If available, go to Step (4). Otherwise go to Step (6).

·        Step 4 − Compare the current project with the identified past project data.

·    Step 5 − Arrive at the duration and cost estimates of the current project. This ends analogous estimation of the project.

·     Step 6 − Look in the organization database if any past projects have similar modules as those in the current project.

·      Step 7 − Look in the organization database if any past projects have similar activities as those in the current project.

·     Step 8 − Collect all those and use expert judgment to arrive at the duration and cost estimates of the current project.

Advantages of Analogous Estimation

·        Analogous estimation is a better way of estimation in the initial stages of the project when very few details are known.

·        The technique is simple and time taken for estimation is very less.

·       Organization’s success rate can be expected to be high since the technique is based on the organization’s past project data.

·     Analogous estimation can be used to estimate the effort and duration of individual tasks too. Hence, in WBS when you estimate the tasks, you can use Analogy.

Differences between analogous and parametric estimating:

·     Analogous is considered top-down and is less accurate than parametric. Analogous estimating uses an “analogy” – comparing a past similar project to your current project.

·  Parametric is more accurate, specifically when the underlying data is scalable. Parametric uses a relationship between variables (a unit cost/duration and the number of units) to develop the estimate.

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