{"id":209,"date":"2010-02-10T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T16:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/?p=209"},"modified":"2022-08-08T09:43:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T14:43:12","slug":"estimating-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.watermarklearning.com\/blog\/estimating-requirements\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Tips for Estimating Requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago I worked on a large effort to reengineer a distribution center for a large retailer. We provided an estimate for both the business analysis <\/a>work and for the entire project, which would involve the organization\u2019s first use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), new business processes, many software changes, and the purchase of new barcode scanners. The business analysis effort took far longer than we anticipated, and at the end of it we refined our estimate for the total project. When we reported the new estimate to the president of the company, he literally pounded his fist on the table and asked, \u201cHow did we get to this point? Why didn\u2019t we know sooner? You\u2019ve already spent all this time on the project and what do we have to show for it? Nothing!. Absolutely nothing!\u201d<\/p>\n

I have always thought of business analysis as the most ambiguous and the most fun of the project phases. However, for many years it was my least favorite phase to estimate. I felt like I was guessing, simply pulling numbers out of the air. As a business analyst I thought it was project management <\/a>work. No wonder we were so far off.<\/p>\n

Estimating the business analysis phase(s) is not easy. It is not hard, but it takes a willingness to think about exactly what work will be produced, and many business analysts do not have the patience.  So for those of you who do not have the \u201cstomach\u201d to spend the required time to estimate business analysis, here are four tips.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Break the effort<\/strong> into manageable pieces.<\/strong> We can estimate a whole lot better when our business analysis phase(s) are small. It\u2019s easier to estimate a user story than an epic story, or one specific business process than business process modeling in general.<\/li>\n
  2. Choose your approach<\/strong>. We\u2019ll estimate differently if we\u2019re using a plan-driven approach (Waterfall) than if we\u2019re estimating in a change-driven (Agile) environment.<\/li>\n
  3. Use a variety of estimating techniques<\/strong>. On many projects we cannot be precise about our estimates when we\u2019re first asked how long business analysis will take. We usually use analogous estimating, or experience with a previous project. If we have good history, we might be able to use parametric estimates. For example, if we know that it takes four hours to model a business process and we have five processes to model, it will take twenty hours to model business processes.<\/li>\n
  4. Brainstorm.<\/strong>  Talk with the people who are actually going to do the work. They usually have a more realistic idea of what needs to be done and how long it will take. I also like yellow sticky notes, since they can be easily added, taken away, and moved.<\/li>\n
  5. Identify all the deliverables\/artifacts. <\/strong> Make sure you know your deliverables before attempting to identify the tasks needed to produce them.  Here are a few examples of deliverables: user stories, agendas and minutes, \u201cas-is\u201d business process model, traceability matrix, to name a few.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course the real, real key<\/em> is having the courage to communicate bad news. Which brings me back to the president pounding his fist. What I should have done was communicate our status regularly, rather than surprising him after months of effort. What a lesson learned!<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Years ago I worked on a large effort to reengineer a distribution center for a large retailer. We provided an estimate for both the business analysis work and for the entire project, which would involve the organization\u2019s first use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), new business processes, many software changes, and the purchase of new barcode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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