The ability to effectively estimate the time and effort it will take to complete a project can be the difference between making a nice profit and descending into the red. By applying a few effective techniques it’s possible to dramatically increase the accuracy of most web project estimates. Here are five estimating strategies that can help you be more accurate, keeping your projects profitable and on schedule:

Keep it small:
You can break down your task list to make it appear more organized and readable by just indenting and out denting the project’s tasks to create an outline of the summary tasks (sometimes called “hammock tasks”) and sub tasks. Continue to break down each piece until you have sufficient level of detail to support your plan. By breaking Projects down into Tasks you can very quickly regain control of your work.

Two minds are better than one:
Group working in tandem always provide faster and better results than individuals working alone. Generally, we assume that making decisions as a group is beneficial because groups can come together to make better choices than their members would alone. Two people can better review, approve and make every decision involving company contractual commitments, financial obligations, payments, or monetary transactions.

Take a break:
Breaks are especially important for professional workers. By taking breaks Your productivity will increase, and you will have more energy throughout the completion of the project. When you find your mind wandering, take a break away from your desk. Go and do anything else but work. Once you’re finished you’ll find that the rush of energy will have you invigorated and ready to tackle some work.

Use padding for protection:
Always create a “fudge factor” or padding into your estimates. The basic purpose for this is that there is uncertainty in every estimate, and we tend to under-estimate the effects of that uncertainty. If one task is particularly familiar to you and you are relatively confident about the estimate, you might add a 10% fudge factor. But for a task that you are less confident about, you will add a more aggressive percentage, 25% or more.

Make people accountable:
Accountability is a basic and necessary skill that must be mastered if you want to Keep Your Projects Profitable. Holding people accountable for the big things, like paying invoices on time, is easier if you also hold them accountable for the little things, like getting to meetings on time. In a world where you get results through teams and teamwork, enforcing accountability plays a key role to success. Use a spreadsheet template for your estimates that contains tasks that you have performed on a lot of other projects.

Before starting the work, you should first replicate all of the phases and tasks, along with their time estimates, into your time tracking tool of choice. Once this is done, you can then begin work and make sure to be disciplined and track everything you do and log it under the right category.