name: development-estimation description: Use when estimating time, effort, or complexity for features or projects - provides structured estimation workflows with breakdowns, risks, and confidence intervals.

Development Estimation

Overview

Create consistent, defensible estimates by breaking scope into components, identifying risks, and providing confidence intervals.

When to Use

• Estimating feature or project scope
• Providing effort or complexity estimates
• Delivering risk-aware breakdowns

Avoid when:

• The task is trivial or a rough gut-check is sufficient
• Requirements are unknown and need discovery first

Quick Reference

Workflow

1. Define scope and estimation type (time/effort/complexity).
2. Load the estimation reference for structure.
3. Break into components and dependencies.
4. Add risks and confidence intervals.
5. Deliver estimate with assumptions.

Output

• Estimate with breakdown and confidence interval
• Assumptions, risks, and validation notes

Common Mistakes

• Estimating without clear scope
• Ignoring risk and dependency factors
• Overstating precision beyond available data