How Do You Estimate Duration For A Project Task?
It can be difficult to estimate the duration of a task. Many projects fail because it was grossly under estimated and the project was completed much later than anticipated. Find any historical information that is available dealing with the task at hand. You may also use your experience to assist in coming up with estimates. Use the three-point estimating technique. What you do is come up with three estimates: an optimistic estimate, a pessimistic estimate, and a most likely estimate. The optimistic estimate is based on if everything goes right. The pessimistic estimate is based on if everything goes wrong. The most likely estimate is using your best judgement as the most likely to occur in this situation. Now that you have the three estimates, you simply average them out by adding them all together and divide by 3. For example if you have an optimistic estimate of 10 days, a pessimistic estimate of 19 days, and a most likely estimate of 13 days you add 10 + 19 + 13 to get 42. Now divid
