Estimating in Internet Time/Estimating for Web Developments

Extremely rapid development cycles necessitate just-in-time estimating to minimise risk and to assure incremental delivery runs smoothly

Description

An increasing amount of business will be conducted in 'internet time'. Widespread access to the world wide web, email and mobile communications in general enable a culture where marketing, sales and service delivery can take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year, irrespective of geography and other constraints. This cultural change increases business opportunity, but with that opportunity comes an increase in competition. That competition, in its turn, drives the need to develop and maintain software applications more quickly. Similar, but apparently weaker, forces drive the need for software to be more reliable and less costly. On top of the need for software to be developed faster, better and cheaper, is the business manager's need for predictability. Marketing and manufacturing plans can come to nothing if the required software services fail to be delivered to the agreed schedule. However, the modern technology and practice of software development would seem to be very different from that in use when the 'traditional' models for software cost estimation where first invented. So how can a modern software engineer estimate project duration, quality and cost for software built in 'internet time'?