• How do I arrive at all the components that need to be included in the estimate, before the design is completed?
  • How do I arrive at the complexities for each of the components?
  • What about effort to be spent on quality assurance activities? How do I treat them in the estimation? Should they be included or not?
  • What about overhead activities—time spent on various committees, progress-tracking meetings, assistance to other organizational wings like human resources, marketing, etc.? How do I treat them? Should they be included or not?
  • What about the time lost due to fragmentation when the duration of the activity is not finished at the end of the workday? Say, for example, somebody completes the work an hour before closing and starts working on the next allocation the next day. How do I account for such eventualities in the estimate?