Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (Developer Best Practices) 1st Edition

I've been a fan of Mr. McConnell's work since I first read Rapid Development and the original version of Code Complete, Second Edition back in the mid 1990's - both of which are books I highly recommend for anyone leading software development projects or teams.The subject matter here is much more focused than in most of his other work - dealing with a specific aspect of project management, rather than management of projects and the software development process as a whole; but, as with his other works, Mr. McConnell's Software Estimation is clearly written, well researched, and takes a very practical "hands-on" approach to the topic at hand. You will find it readable and packed with useful information. His conclusions and recommendations are well supported with references to the source material from which he derives them, and he does a good job of giving us a well balanced view of the relative merits, cautions and how best to utilize each of his recommendations.The book is a fairly easy and straightforward read: my first pass through it took just a few hours, and I experienced one or more of those "aha!" moments of revelation with almost every chapter.In Part I of the book, he presents overview of what Software Estimation is - and isn't; its value; what factors influence estimates; and also challenges the preconceptions all of us have with regards to software estimation. He often delves into some statistical examples to illustrate or prove his point, but these are easy to follow, and should not strain your brain too severely!In Part II, Mr. McConnell describes a reasonably large number of software estimation techniques - describing how they work; the value, merits and challenges of each; and how to chose when (and why) to employ each one.Part III was of the most value to me - focusing on "Specific Estimation Challenges" in the areas of estimating project size, effort, schedule, activity breakdowns, cost estimates, and metrics related to defects.The final two chapters - 22 and 23 - of this book will be of immense value to you; as they focus on how to present estimates to others in ways that will be of most value in your attempt to provide a clear and balanced view of your project's costs and benefits to the organization. They also provide valuable tips on how to prepare and present yourself when facing the challenges that most of us (who spend more time with computers than people) encounter when trying to communicate with executives and nontechnical individuals.In my opinion, this book will serve not only as an excellent introduction and guide to the discipline of Software Estimation, but is also an excellent reference work that you should keep close at hand: you will be digging into it regularly whenever you are managing a software development project!In summary, this volume is yet another winner from Steve McConnell, and I recommend it highly for anyone in a leadership or senior role in software development. Five Stars!

"Software Estimation" by Steve McConnell provides a very broad overview of many ways to reduce the software estimation errors for your development cycle. Like all of Mr McConnell's books, he provides crystal clear writing with tons of techniques that are ready for application in the real world.One of the many great things about "software Estimation" is the sheer number of methods he gives. From Lines of code, to function points, to similar projects, to industry estimates (broken down by sub category so that database is different from embedded devices), to t shirt sizing, to maintaining development history: he makes it clear that you have a lot of different options available to you. He takes great pains to emphasize that one size does not fit all. Additionally he gives rationales for when the estimate techniques work in a project's lifecycle.With all the methods described, another point driven home is that software is something of an art and that you can reduce the amount of uncertainty but you can never fully remove it. None of the methods that improve estimation are silver bullets. I love that he draws the line in the sand here. Its very true and in fact he goes a step further, pointing out that on successful projects the "cone of uncertainty" converges as the project matures. The converse is also true. Wise words indeed.The final chapter feels more like a tack on, however the message contained therein is something that needs to be stated again and again: marketing/management is not the enemy. It is important to remember that everyone has the same goals and that the battle really should be a collaboration. However good this chapter was, it still felt out of place.There are a few niggling issues that I had. The biggest gripe is that he talks a lot about estimation software packages. In fact, he makes assumptions that the reader has knowledge of these packages. Working in start-ups, I've never even heard of these packages until this book. Its a small gripe, but it did detract. Another issue would be some of the examples on applying the various techniques towards the end of the book were far too glossy and far to dry. I think there was some good information there but you, as the reader, will need to make a few assumptions. Which, to me, is always a dangerous thing. Not as bad as fighting a land war in Asia, but still dangerous.Overall though, as a software engineer/manager I found this book to be invaluable. The techniques are usable right away and really helped me convey the uncertainty I had in ways that I wasn't able to in the past. I think this should be required reading for anyone who works in the software industry.

I am about half way through the book: the information is very useful and highly readable. I recommend this to anyone who has to estimate software/technology efforts, which I do as part of my living. This book will help one-time estimators, but it is not a cookbook of instant estimates. You must do the work.The book is a reference and a textbook. The author identifies sections to skip to rather than reading straight through if you have an issue to address. As other reviews address content at length, I will not go into it.The book discusses (thus far) refining estimates as a project continues and more detail is known, and it assumes this will happen. This is true for a PM managing his effort to stay within budget, but upfront estimates for fixed price contracts permit no such refining for the estimator. There is, however, information to help those of us who must estimate at the budget/proposal/concept stages and need to get it right.The Kindle version has some issues if you have a black and white Kindle. For one thing, the hardcopy relies on color charts and refers to the blue areas to make a point. But in B&W, there is no differentiation in the shades. This could have been easily fixed using texture or bolding the data element titles. In addition, the chart bottoms don't show unless you significantly reduce text size, affecting readability, and there is still some difficulty seeing the whole chart in some cases. I have experienced this in other Kindle books with charts. That is not enough to dissuade from purchase, as the balance of information is well worth the price. The content deserves 5 stars, but got 4 to address the Kindle issues.