I’ll be giving a free webinar on the 10 Deadly Sins of Software Estimation on April 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. Here’s a link to sign up for it: http://adtmag.com/webcasts/2011/03/construx-10-deadly-sins-of-software-estimation.aspx?partnerref=con4.
Here’s the overview:
The average project overruns its budget and schedule estimates by 50-80 percent, but in practice little work is done that could truly be called "estimation." Many projects are scheduled using a combination of legitimate business targets and liberal doses of wishful thinking. In this talk, I will present 10 of the worst ways estimates go wrong and time-tested rules of thumb for dramatically improving estimation accuracy.
About Steve McConnell
Steve McConnell is CEO and Chief Software Engineer at Construx Software where he writes books and articles, teaches classes, and oversees Construx’s software development practices. Steve is the author of Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art (2006), Code Complete (1993, 2004), Rapid Development (1996), Software Project Survival Guide (1998), and Professional Software Development (2004). His first two books won Software Development magazine's Jolt Excellence award for best programming books of their years.
Steve has worked in the desktop software industry since 1984 and has expertise in rapid development methodologies, project estimation, software construction practices, and third-party contract management. In 1998, readers of Software Development magazine named Steve one of the three most influential people in the software industry along with Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. Steve was Editor in Chief of IEEE Software magazine from 1998-2002.
Steve is on the Panel of Experts that advises the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) project and was Chair of the IEEE Computer Society’s Professional Practices Committee. Steve earned a Bachelor’s degree from Whitman College and a Master’s degree in software engineering from Seattle University. Read more about Steve at www.stevemcconnell.com.