Estimate Activity Durations is part of the “Time Management” Knowledge Area, and is part of the “Planning” Process Group.
Estimate Activity Durations is the process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. The key benefit of this process is that it provides the amount of time each activity will take to complete, which is a major input into the Develop Schedule process.
Estimating activity durations uses information on activity scope of work, required resource types, estimated resource quantities, and resource calendars. The inputs of the estimates of activity duration originate from the person or group on the project team who is most familiar with the nature of the work in the specific activity. The duration estimate is progressively elaborated, and the process considers the quality and availability of the input data. For example, as more detailed and precise data is available about the project engineering and design work, the accuracy of the duration estimates improves. Thus, the duration estimate can be assumed to be progressively more accurate and of better quality.
The Estimate Activity Durations process requires an estimation of the amount of work effort required to complete the activity and the amount of available resources estimated to complete the activity. These estimates are used to approximate the number of work periods (activity duration) needed to complete the activity using the appropriate project and resource calendars. All data and assumptions that support duration estimating are documented for each estimate of activity duration.
This definition was found in the PMBOK V5
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Estimate Activity Durations has:
Inputs:
- Activity attributes
- Activity list
- Activity resource requirements
- Enterprise Environmental Factors
- Organizational Process Assets
- Project scope statement
- Resource breakdown structure
- Resource calendars
- Risk register
- Schedule management plan
Outputs:
- Activity duration estimates
- Project documents updates
Tools and techniques:
- Analogous estimating
- Expert judgment
- Group decision-making techniques
- Parametric estimating
- Reserve analysis
- Three-point estimating
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