Estimate effort, cost and schedule

Practice PM-03 in the Project Management group. The basis is our-reading, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: PM-03
Process: Project Management
Basis: our-reading
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Project ManagementThe estimate with its basis and assumptions
Project ManagementThe reference projects or the stated absence of history
Project ManagementThe contingency and who owns it

Questions before you sign

What did the last three similar projects take?
Which assumptions would change the estimate most?
How much contingency is held, and by whom?

The practice, in our words

Estimate the work from the deliverables and the team's own history, not from optimism. Record the basis of the estimate, the assumptions and the contingency. An estimate without its basis cannot be reviewed when it moves.

What it means in a VSE

Use the last three similar projects as the reference class. Where there is no history, say so and use a range. A range with a stated basis is more honest than a single number with none.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, estimate effort, cost and schedule has to earn its time. The test for PM-03 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Estimate effort, cost and schedule row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for PM-03 is The estimate with its basis and assumptions. A named person must produce it on request.

For PM-03, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The reference projects or the stated absence of history. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for estimate effort, cost and schedule.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the estimate effort, cost and schedule practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For PM-03, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for PM-03 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

An estimate built from the price the customer wants to hear
Contingency hidden inside task durations

What changes from the 2019 report. For PM-03, project management is the spine the other practices hang from. The transition work is to make the plan, the progress reading and the closure exist as records rather than as habits.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places estimate effort, cost and schedule inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For PM-03, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for PM-03 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the PM-03 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.