Every square is a rectangle, but every rectangle is not a square.
We’ve all heard that expression, and planning and estimating share a similar duality. Every estimator is a planner (formally or not) but every planner is not necessarily an estimator.
Estimators may not think of themselves as planners, yet that’s exactly what they’re doing when they think through a project’s details in order to prepare the estimate. Planning is preparation for future action, and it’s impossible for an estimator to finalize an estimate without knowing – wait for it – THE PLAN.
How detailed that planning process becomes during the estimating stage depends on many factors (see our series of posts covering the C5-C1 estimates), including the time available to prepare the estimate, the value of the project, and its potential risk and impact on the organization.
Regardless of how much planning is done during the estimating stage, thousands of estimators over the past twenty years indicate there is even greater variance in how much of the estimator’s planning process is captured so that it can be leveraged downstream.
To many organizations, “the estimate” is simply the collection of final numbers arrived at as a result of the estimating exercise. But the real value of the estimator’s work is the thought process that led to those final numbers. Capturing that thought process as a model – with all of its associated variables – streamlines everything that comes after the estimate. Producing resource plans and schedules, performing “what if?” scenarios, and evaluating project changes are just three examples of tasks that are greatly streamlined through access to the estimator’s model.
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