I think a useful place to begin estimates, before you dive into the detail level and go bottom up from tasks, is estimate by analogy. Look at how long it has actually taken you or your team to deliver a real system. Use that as the baseline for the estimation process.
Unless you have delivered systems in 2 days, you probably don't have a process that supports delivering systems in 2 days. That's why delivering something in 2 days is a good thing to try. I like this post of a team building something in 4 hours.
http://blog.palantirtech.com/2009/07/06/the-multisnake-chall...
Comments
I think a useful place to begin estimates, before you dive into the detail level and go bottom up from tasks, is estimate by analogy. Look at how long it has actually taken you or your team to deliver a real system. Use that as the baseline for the estimation process.
Unless you have delivered systems in 2 days, you probably don't have a process that supports delivering systems in 2 days. That's why delivering something in 2 days is a good thing to try. I like this post of a team building something in 4 hours. http://blog.palantirtech.com/2009/07/06/the-multisnake-chall...