Selling your Software Estimate by Arlene Minikiewicz - Article Example

The paper "Selling your Software Estimate by Arlene Minikiewicz " is a good example of an article on business. ‘Selling your Software Estimate’ by Arlene Minikiewicz explores the complexities in successfully estimating the cost of the project and preparing the project timely and focuses on what is actually required by the business. There cannot be found a better example of an evolving industry than a software industry. Every day some new software is introduced in the market, and existing software gets outdated - so it is extremely difficult to develop marketable software that has a long shelf life. 

The article focuses on the negotiation between the business managers and software project members to timely produce software that fulfills their requirements and has an effective cost. Now the essential thing is estimating the cost of the project or estimating the cost of the software (Minikiewicz, 2002). Good estimation of the software is needed, very important and to provide the business with the details of the cost they will incur beforehand. Reliable cost estimation is needed by the businesses in order to record revenue and profit on the project according to accounting rules. Cost estimation is needed by software managers, too. Software managers have to estimate the cost of the software in order to quote their bid of the software price so that they could make a profit.
The article poses another point that the cost estimation by the managers may not be negotiable by the business managers. The cost bid may be too high or the timely completion for a successful project may be too long. So the cost estimation has to have minimal difference than the actual cost incurred because the margin for managers to make a profit and managers to make a negotiable deal with business managers may take place. Software cost is implicit and cannot be measured by everyone (Minikiewicz, 2002). Many managers include the fixed overheads that are not being used in making the software in the software’s cost and provide an unreliable estimate of the project.
To successfully develop the software, the software team should first look upon the cost incurred of similar software that is being used for the same purpose. There is quite a famous method used to measure real estate which is hedonic price estimation. It uses the cost of a similar property and then adds and subtracts the differences between the subject property and the similar property. Because software is a rapidly changing industry, every minute factors are taken into consideration. Using the cost of a similar project and reviewing it for differences between your projects a reliable cost estimate can be developed. If one has a Cost Estimating Relationship tool, estimating project cost can become easy since it can automatically take note of the differences between the subject cost and project’s cost and adjust for differences. Otherwise, the above-mentioned procedure may turn out to be a very effective tool for reliably estimating the cost of a project. Read More