EstimatorPal is a program intended to make the lives of software developers easier. It is billed as an all in one estimator when it comes to software size, development effort, development cost, and development schedule. Does it simplify things?
EstimatorPal is a program designed to help software developers. Specifically, this program makes estimations on four dimensions: software size, development effort, development cost, and development schedule. A demo version and a link to purchase the software for $450 are available here.
EstimatorPal, by Chemutri Consuliting, can calculate a schedule you input the number of people working on a project and the number of working days for the project upon given the parameters of the project. This is a handy means of calculating things once you know what rate your team members work at. The schedule can then export into Microsoft Excel. This is useful as you can export the schedule from Excel into other programs like Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Project, and Vertabase.
EstimatorPal estimates software size in terms of lines of code needed. This is handy when trying to break down the software project in terms of who will work on which part.
Another thing EstimatorPal will do for you is estimate how much time each portion of the software project should take, given the size. It gives an “optimistic”, “pessimistic” and “most likely” expected period for the project. This can be handy in cases where project managers want to keep an eye on the productivity of their team members.
Finally, EstimatorPal can also estimate the cost of the software development. It does this by estimating the cost of “Person Hours” or how much time individuals spent on the project. This can help figure in when developers determine pricing of the final product.
The interface of EstimatorPal takes some getting used to. While other estimation products out there may be more user-friendly, EstimatorPal quickly interfaces between various types of estimation. EstimatorPal is not attractive, but rather the developers intended it to be functional. Other products by the same company include PMPal. The best part of this software is that the creators of the software are willing to work with you to train you to use it. This makes the program suitable for those who may be technology shy but require accurate estimation tools.