You are absolutely right. I do this every day as a professional construction(not software) estimator on multi-year projects worth millions of dollars. You can't accurately estimate something without breeaking it down into pieces small enought to get your hands around.
The only additions I would make to your tips are:
2a)Breakdown the small tasks into smaller tasks
and
4)add up and add a percentage based on the detail arrived at in #1 - the less detail, the higher the contingency %
Estimating is not easy! The construction industry has over 100 years of experience to draw on and estimating is still viewed as 70% science and 30% art.
Remember one more thing: even the best estimate will be ruined by poor project management....
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You are absolutely right. I do this every day as a professional construction(not software) estimator on multi-year projects worth millions of dollars. You can't accurately estimate something without breeaking it down into pieces small enought to get your hands around.
The only additions I would make to your tips are:
2a)Breakdown the small tasks into smaller tasks
and
4)add up and add a percentage based on the detail arrived at in #1 - the less detail, the higher the contingency %
Estimating is not easy! The construction industry has over 100 years of experience to draw on and estimating is still viewed as 70% science and 30% art.
Remember one more thing: even the best estimate will be ruined by poor project management....