Work Item-Based Effort Estimation

Put Simply Statement:
Estimate project effort based on work items and the various ways to influence their effort (drivers, complexity, accelerator, etc)

Why it Matters:
This drives more consistent and accurate estimates, preventing margin erosion from padded resource inputs. It aligns estimation with tangible project outputs and strategic margin management goals.

What’s Needed:

• Tying of work items to specific offering details

• Develop a work item and driver-based estimation engine.

• Update data models to link effort to work items.

• UI updates to guide users through work item-driven estimation.

• Early ACs:

  • Users can select Accelerators, Drivers and Complexities associated to their work items as the basis for estimates

    • Drivers and Complexity Matrix selections will only display if their work items are in scope

    • I dont think we need to show the work items anywhere, but I think we should show the accelerators as a selection somewhere, especially given the focus on AI accelerators

  • Estimates do not require role-level breakdown unless specified.

    • ^? "Estimates do not require work items broken down to the role-level"* (they are required to be broken by team, and that's prolly going to relevant for product codes eventually I'd think)

  • Consistent calculation logic applied across all projects.