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I've seen a lot of postings here in the past few years asking about project
estimation advice. I thought you might be interested to know that some
really good estimation software is just out of beta. It's from Telcordia and
you can see it at www.800teachme.com/whatsnew.html.
We like this stuff. It's not perfect, but it's only in version one. It still
beats everything else we've tried. It's also good for training projects, WBT
projects, and other "performance support" scenarios. To our astonishment, we
estimated projects our way and the Estimator way, and we came up with fairly
close answers. Of course, you still have to know what you're doing and how
to swag a project's complexity and whatnot, but Estimator is proving to be
pretty good. It lets you input factors for your own margins. It doesn't let
you forget any of the other factors you should consider, either. It even has
a wizard to step you through.
If you try it, I'd like to know your impressions.
Tim Altom
Simply Written, Inc.
Featuring FrameMaker and the Clustar Method(TM)
"Better communication is a service to mankind."
317.562.9298
Check our Web site for the upcoming Clustar class info http://www.simplywritten.com