"The United States faces enormous changes in the next 25 years. Arthur C. (Chris) Nelson starts this book with a few projections: The population will grow by one-third to 375 million. We will need 60 million new housing units to house these people. There will be 60 percent more jobs, requiring 50 billion additional square feet of nonresidential space. The bottom line is that half of all development in 2030 will have been built since 2000. Nelson estimates the cost of new construction alone to be at least $20 trillion.This book gives planning practitioners a powerful tool to help decide where to put this new development. It does not advocate one development scenario over another, but it revolutionizes the job of estimating land-use and facility needs.Planner's Estimating Guide offers easy-to-use formulas and worksheets that are formatted in an Excel workbook on CD-ROM and carefully explained in the text. They make it easy to figure future requirements for countless scenarios. The workbook and text deal with a 20-year planning horizon for a fictitious county, but both the time projection and scale are entirely adaptable to myriad local circumstances.The program allows you to gather a first impression of future land-use needs, and revise it to reflect local limitations. For example, if the landscape in question won't support the land-use estimations, change the assumptions in the workbook to devise new estimates. The workbook shows the implications of growth based on standard assumptions; you can change the assumptions as needed to reflect local conditions — including public input — to see how outcomes change.Use the workbook as a model for testing local sensitivities with respect to land supply constraints and changes in policy assumptions. The results won't tell you what to do, but will reveal the numerical implications of different scenarios. The book is written principally for practitioners, and also for planning students as a primary or supplementary text.Used creatively, the powerful tools in Planner's Estimating Guide will help you determine the numerical implications of an almost infinite number of future circumstances that may affect your community."--Provided by publisher.

A workbook and CD-ROM containing formulas and spreadsheets that enable planners to estimate future land-use and facility needs in their communities.

Agile Estimating and Planning is the definitive, practical guide to estimating and planning agile projects. In this book, Agile Alliance cofounder Mike Cohn discusses the philosophy of agile estimating and planning and shows you exactly how to get the job done, with real-world examples and case studies. Concepts are clearly illustrated and readers are guided, step by step, toward how to answer the following questions: What will we build? How big will it be? When must it be done? How much can I really complete by then? You will first learn what makes a good plan-and then what makes it agile. Using the techniques in Agile Estimating and Planning, you can stay agile from start to finish, saving time, conserving resources, and accomplishing more. Highlights include: Why conventional prescriptive planning fails and why agile planning works How to estimate feature size using story points and ideal days–and when to use each How and when to re-estimate How to prioritize features using both financial and nonfinancial approaches How to split large features into smaller, more manageable ones How to plan iterations and predict your team's initial rate of progress How to schedule projects that have unusually high uncertainty or schedule-related risk How to estimate projects that will be worked on by multiple teams Agile Estimating and Planning supports any agile, semiagile, or iterative process, including Scrum, XP, Feature-Driven Development, Crystal, Adaptive Software Development, DSDM, Unified Process, and many more. It will be an indispensable resource for every development manager, team leader, and team member.

The United States faces enormous changes in the next 25 years. Arthur C. (Chris) Nelson starts this book with a few projections: The population will grow by one-third to 375 million. We will need 60 million new housing units to house these people. There will be 60 percent more jobs, requiring 50 billion additional square feet of nonresidential space. The bottom line is that half of all development in 2030 will have been built since 2000. Nelson estimates the cost of new construction alone to be at least $20 trillion. This book gives planning practitioners a powerful tool to help decide where to put this new development. It does not advocate one development scenario over another, but it revolutionizes the job of estimating land-use and facility needs. Planner's Estimating Guide offers easy-to-use formulas and worksheets that are formatted in an Excel workbook on CD-ROM and carefully explained in the text. They make it easy to figure future requirements for countless scenarios. The workbook and text deal with a 20-year planning horizon for a fictitious county, but both the time projection and scale are entirely adaptable to myriad local circumstances. The program allows you to gather a first impression of future land-use needs, and revise it to reflect local limitations. For example, if the landscape in question won't support the land-use estimations, change the assumptions in the workbook to devise new estimates. The workbook shows the implications of growth based on standard assumptions; you can change the assumptions as needed to reflect local conditions — including public input — to see how outcomes change. Use the workbook as a model for testing local sensitivities with respect to land supply constraints and changes in policy assumptions. The results won't tell you what to do, but will reveal the numerical implications of different scenarios. The book is written principally for practitioners, and also for planning students as a primary or supplementary text. Used creatively, the powerful tools in Planner's Estimating Guide will help you determine the numerical implications of an almost infinite number of future circumstances that may affect your community.

Written specifically for the oil and gas industry, Reliable Maintenance Planning, Estimating, and Scheduling provides maintenance managers and engineers with the tools and techniques to create a manageable maintenance program that will save money and prevent costly facility shutdowns. The ABCs of work identification, planning, prioritization, scheduling, and execution are explained. The objective is to provide the capacity to identify, select and apply maintenance interventions that assure an effective maintenance management, while maximizing equipment performance, value creation and opportune and effective decision making. The book provides a pre- and post- self-assessment that will allow for measure competency improvement. Maintenance Managers and Engineers receive an expert guide for developing detailed actions including repairs, alterations, and preventative maintenance. - The nuts and bolts of the planning, estimating, and scheduling process for oil and gas facilities - Step-by-step maintenance guide will provide long-term, results-based operational services - Case studies based on the oil and gas industry

With over a million commercial/institutional buildings and countless residences erected in the U.S. prior to World War II, more and more AECs and facility professionals are having to manage and estimate preservation of these projects. This book provides crucial information on: Applicable standards and financing Site survey and documentation methods Protecting finishes and features Hazardous materials Identifying and qualifying specialty contractors Mechanical/electrical systems upgrades Includes a reference guide on old building materials and how to restore them The Cost Estimating section explains how to assemble a reliable, detailed estimate. The book also covers budgeting for future maintenance of the restored building. Authored and reviewed by a team of leading experts in the field of historic preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation – authorities recognized nationwide in design and construction.

To understand Construction Estimating one must also understand plan reading and construction techniques. This book is designed to teach the construction student these three core skills in equal measure. Using hundreds of plans, sketches, and photos, the book builds case studies of the major construction divisions including concrete, masonry, carpentry, and more. Over forty cases are divided into sections following a specially designed format: Plans: Scale drawings of floor plans, sections, or elevations. Plan Interpretation: The drawings are explained with comments. Scope of the Work: A written description of the boundaries of the work is given for each section. Construction Techniques: The construction processes and their sequence are explained. The Takeoff: A takeoff is shown at the end of each section. This approach helps foster confidence in plan reading, building methods, arithmetic, takeoffs, and estimates. The various products and terms used in the industries of structural steel, doors and hardware, and roofing are defined. The shop drawing process is explained, which is so important in many industries, as well as the role of and difference between manufacturers, fabricators, and suppliers/distributors. The book ends with a study of "front end" documents, including Division 00 General Conditions, AIA 201, and Division 01 General Requirements, and a chapter on Ethics. This textbook can be used to teach a variety of classes including plan reading, construction techniques, and estimating 1 and 2 (takeoffs and pricing).

Estimating software development often produces more angst than value, but it doesn't have to. Identify the needs behind estimate requests and determine how to meet those needs simply and easily. Choose estimation techniques based on current needs and available information, gaining benefit while reducing cost and effort. Detect bad assumptions that might sink your project if you don't adjust your plans. Discover what to do when an estimate is wrong, how to recover, and how to use that knowledge for future planning. Learn to communicate about estimates in a healthy and productive way, maximizing advantage to the organization and minimizing damage to the people. In a world where most developers hate estimation and most managers fear disappointment with the results, there is hope for both. It requires giving up some widely held misconceptions. Let go of the notion that "an estimate is an estimate" and estimate for the particular need you, and your organization, have. Realize that estimates have a limited shelf-life, and reestimate frequently if it's important. When reality differs from your estimate, don't lament; mine that disappointment for the gold that can be the longer-term jackpot. Estimate in comparison to past experience, by modeling the work mathematically, or a hybrid of both. Learn strategies for effective decomposition of work and aspects of the work that likely affect your estimates. Hedge your bets by comparing the results of different approaches. Find out what to do when an estimate proves wrong. And they will. They're estimates, after all. You'll discover that you can use estimates to warn you of danger so you can take appropriate action in time. Learn some crucial techniques to understand and communicate with those who need to understand. Address both the technical and sociological aspects of estimation, and you'll help your organization achieve its desired goals with less drama and more benefit. What You Need: No software needed, just your past experience and concern for the outcomes.

Without careful ongoing planning, the software development process can fall apart. Extreme Programming (XP) is a new programming discipline, or methodology, that is geared toward the way that the vast majority of software development projects are handled -- in small teams. In this new book, noted software engineers Kent Beck and Martin Fowler show the reader how to properly plan a software development project with XP in mind. The authors lay out a proven strategy that forces the reader to plan as their software project unfolds, and therefore avoid many of the nasty problems that can potentially spring up along the way.