Evaluating software estimates: sure signs of unrealistic figures?

Posted by Totophil on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Totophil
Published on 2009-02-16T13:12:39Z Indexed on 2010/03/16 14:06 UTC
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project-management

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estimation

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management

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evaluation

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project-failure

Whilst answering “Dealing with awful estimates” posted by Ash I shared a few tips that I learned and personally use to spot weak estimates. But I am certain there must be many more!

What heuristics to use in the scenario when one needs to make a quick evaluation of software project estimate that has been compiled by a third-party (a colleague, a business partner or an external company)?

What are the obvious and not so obvious signs of weak software estimates that can be spotted without much detailed knowledge of task at hand?

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