What Is a Good Estimate

The basic question of software effort estimation is “What is a good estimate?” Traditionally, effort estimation has been used for planning and tracking overall resources, such as manpower, required for completing a project. With this objective in mind, over the years, researchers have been pursuing an elusive target of getting a 100 % accurate estimate in terms of exact number of person-hours required for completing a software project. Effort estimation methods that grew upon this goal focus on providing exact point estimates.