Poor Requirements Yield Poor Cost Estimates

Poor cost estimation can be traced back to these top five causes that all relate to the requirements process:

1. Frequent requirements changes
2. Missing requirements
3. Insufficient communication with users
4. Poor specification of requirements
5. Insufficient analysis

Here are some ways to improve your requirements process:

• Use prototyping to reduce the risk of incorrect requirements.
• Use configuration management to control change.
• Plan new requirements for future releases.
• Use more formal approaches for requirements analysis and specification.

Reference:
Lederer, A. and J. Prasad, "Nine Management Guidelines for Better Cost Estimating," Communications of the ACM, February 1992.