Feature Overview

The Project Estimation feature helps project managers and teams perform systematic and reliable estimation for effort, schedule, and cost in Waterfall projects.

Based on project size, historical data, and organizational efficiency, this feature provides detailed estimates for effort, schedule, and cost, helping ensure reasonable resource allocation and feasible project planning. Its main capabilities include effort estimation, schedule estimation, and cost estimation, and it also supports data linkage with other project modules such as requirements and tasks.

Use Cases

• Project initiation: At the beginning of a project, the project manager and relevant stakeholders review project requirements and objectives together, define the project scope, and make an initial size estimate to support later resource allocation and planning.
• Effort estimation: Based on historical experience and data from the organization-level metrics repository, the product manager can determine team productivity and estimate the effort required for the project based on the estimated size, helping the team allocate resources more effectively.
• Schedule estimation: Based on the project milestone breakdown, the project manager can estimate the effort for each phase and then estimate the duration of each phase according to the planned resource input, ensuring that the project schedule is reasonable and achievable.
• Cost estimation: Based on effort estimates and resource input, finance or project management staff can estimate both direct costs such as salaries and outsourcing costs, and indirect costs such as rent and employee benefits, thereby forming the project budget.
• Project adjustment and optimization: During project execution, if requirements change or resources are adjusted, the Project Estimation feature can be used to re-evaluate effort, schedule, and cost to keep project goals on track.

I. Configure Permissions in Admin

Before using the Estimation feature, go to Admin > People Management > Permissions and configure the required user permissions.

The permission settings include Cost Estimation, Effort Estimation, and Project Schedule Estimation, and each permission package can be configured separately.

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Under the Project > More navigation, click Estimate.

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II. Estimate the Project

1. The project manager, product manager, and relevant stakeholders jointly review project requirements and objectives, define the project scope, and make an initial estimate of project size.
2. Based on historical experience and historical data from the organization-level metrics repository, the product manager identifies the productivity of the organization or project team.
3. Based on the size estimate, the team then estimates the project’s effort, schedule, and cost.
4. The estimation results are then recorded in the project’s estimation records in Sanplex. Testing, quality assurance, configuration management, and project management activities should also be included in the size estimate.

• Estimate effort: Based on known size, complexity, and identified productivity, calculate the total effort required for the project.
• Estimate schedule: Based on the project milestone breakdown, allocate effort across milestones, then estimate the required duration for each milestone according to its effort and available resources. In general, duration = milestone effort / number of people assigned to that milestone.
• Estimate cost: From a financial perspective, cost is divided into direct cost and indirect cost. Direct cost includes items such as salaries and outsourced procurement costs. Indirect cost includes items such as rent, utilities, employee benefits, and training.

1. Configure estimation basics

Before performing estimation, go to Admin > Model Configuration > Common > Estimate to configure the estimation unit, labor cost per unit, daily work hours, and working days per week.

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2. Effort estimation

Click Project, select your project, then click More > Estimate to open Effort Estimation.

You need to complete Effort Estimation before you can proceed to Schedule Estimation.

Set the project’s size, total work hours, labor cost per unit, estimated labor cost, and daily work hours.

If the estimation unit is set to work hours, then the size in effort estimation represents the total work hours of the project requirements. You can either define a new size manually or use the project’s actual size.

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To view the actual project size, go to Project > Requirements and check the total work hours in the requirement list.

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3. Schedule estimation

After effort estimation is completed, you can proceed with Schedule Estimation.

Schedule estimation is used to estimate the workload of each project phase. The effort for each phase is distributed from the total project size according to the workload percentage assigned to that phase.

You can enter or adjust the values based on the actual project phases.

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4. Cost estimation

Before performing cost estimation, go to Admin > Model Configuration > Common > Expense Items to add and maintain expense categories.

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The Cost Estimation section includes both Summary and List views.

Click Create or Batch Create to add cost estimates.

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Fill in the required information on the cost estimation creation page.

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After clicking Save, the system automatically opens the list page.

You can use the Edit and Delete buttons on the right side of the list page to modify or remove cost records.

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In Summary, you can view the total estimated budget.

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