Your software development project should have a successful implementation on or under the budget allocated for the same.
Companies which outsource their software development work, always commit various budget estimation mistakes, which lead to various implementation and execution losses. To avoid such mistakes, this article highlights those mistakes and provides easy solutions for the same.
Importance Of Cost Estimation In Software Development Project
The detailed cost estimation process leads to risk-free development, which involves identifying the cost drivers during the planning phase. Performing back-of-the-envelope comparisons with past projects may drive cost overruns as it misses the unique project needs and objectives. A comprehensive business plan of a software startup should include a thorough Software Development Cost Estimation to ensure financial viability and attract potential investors.
Building an actionable foundation through the cost estimation process leads to subsequent software development. The process generates a detailed timeline accounting of deliverables, which translates directly into the project roadmap.
A concrete, deliverable-focused cost estimation ties the development project to align workflows with the available resources and fight creeping scope. The cost of developing EV station management software can be estimated by considering the software’s features.You must know that cost estimation has a lot of uncertainty, which can be tackled by identifying those unknowns and ensuring flexibility in budget planning for future development agendas.
Here we have the list of mistakes to avoid during software development project cost estimation.
Missing Task Requirements Cross-Review
When you outsource the software development project to a development team working on different platforms, the project quality is the biggest factor in its success. If your backend developer is oblivious to the needs of the software development, it can lead to difficult situations.
For example, you have a situation where the developers complete their work, and it turns out that they missed some development needs of the software by developing something else. This lack of communication of the task requirements can lead to a waste of building costs and ruin the cost estimation.
Such a situation can be avoided by planning the tasks and discussing every detail of it, before approving the cost estimation.
Lack Of Research
When the tasks are entirely new for the development team or the assignees, it gets pretty tough to perform proper research or have ample time to do so. Artificial intelligence and its impact on software development cost estimation is a rapidly evolving field with the potential to significantly improve accuracy and efficiency. This type of situation can easily hamper the cost estimation process, as the project manager can either request the estimation quickly, having pure guesses, or put up an investigation timeline for the same.
The latter choice of performing proper research reduces the risk of false estimation and can avert wrong decisions in the task requirement. This can lead to updating the project priorities according to the task’s value concerning the business point of view rather than the resources available for completing the project.
The best way to deal here is to execute proper research and understand the tasks in detail.
Improper Priorities Assigning
When you ensure robust prioritisation for product development, management of the scope and time is necessary. You may miss some priorities in the task list, and it can lead the team to waste time on less important things, instead of working on the most crucial tasks.
Also, the task scope can get ambiguous and the team has a limited timeline before the release, it demands putting reasonable priorities for prudent development and decision making. Prioritising the tasks properly goes in parallel with decomposing the completed tasks on time.
Missing Decomposition Of Stories And Features
When you perform proper decomposition, it ensures that the cost estimation leads to an actionable software development project plan. The decomposing process involves dividing and subdividing various tasks into shorter, manageable tasks, which leads to accurate cost estimation.
And it is essential to involve the decomposition of the stories and features, as it specifies the requirements, breaks down the tasks concretely, and clarifies the risks. Such a detailed decomposition plan can lead developers to a clear roadmap of the software development process.
Vacuum Estimation
The project managers should consider specific timelines, business-driven goals, and end targets for developing an accurate cost estimation.
When there is a daily estimation of the task schedule, it provides assumptions based on the assignee’s experience, understanding, and expertise of the project risks. Even then the project cost estimation should not be done in a vacuum.
The process of cost estimation should involve all the stakeholders to create a completely aware business target, for example, attending expo park exhibitions with a demo and an MVP. The knowledge camps provide the engineers and managers with a feasible, well-informed plan for achieving the targets effectively, leading to inclusive cost estimation.
Final Values Are Not Estimates
The project approvers need not consider false estimates which are generated by false certainty tied to the operational reality.
It is important to remember the fact that estimations are provided on a certain set of assumptions, which can be mistreated as final, reliable values by some stakeholders.
After all, project management involves a high level of uncertainty, especially in the cost estimation process, for example, a difference of more than $1000 in the cost estimation of project approvers and developers.
Final Thoughts
Cost estimation of a software development project involves various processes and stakeholders for defining the near-to-accurate costing of the project. Various mistakes during the process can hamper your costing, and lead to different problems in the development process, halting of project, fund scarcity, loss of time, and much more. Therefore, you must remember these usual mistakes, and prevent them from creeping into your project.
Author’s Bio
Jaspreet Kaur Kalra is a passionate young blood, fond of exploring and learning new skills. She writes about lifestyle, healthy living, and marketing. Besides, she is intrigued by fashion, food, and natural aesthetics. She has written for Thrv – Jobs to be done.
