No matter the size, scope, or budget, estimating the cost of a project and scope of work can feel daunting in real-time. An accurate estimate depends on understanding your team, deliverables, tasks, and processes. In addition, the project estimation process takes a thorough inventory of the required effort, incorporates forecasting of the unexpected, and understands the allocation of payment common to the industry.
Since 1992, ProEdit has helped hundreds of companies solve business communication problems for every type of project. As a result, our experience honing project estimation techniques in copywriting, technical writing, editing, instructional design, and related disciplines demonstrates expert judgment in these matters. Here are the go-to strategies we use to estimate the cost of a project quickly and accurately.
A good price estimate takes a thorough inventory of the effort, factors in the unexpected, and understands the payment arrangements common to the industry.
Resource Management
Most project cost estimates are based on historical data or past projects (a technique known among professionals as analogous estimation). It’s important to take an inventory of the proposed project before you try to estimate the cost. These are the inventory questions we at ProEdit tend to ask before every project:
- How big should the final deliverable be? (e.g., number of pages, words, e-learning modules, webpages, slides)
- How much existing source material, such as a template, is available for the current project?
- Do subject matter experts (SMEs) prefer to meet remotely or on-site at the beginning of a project?
- Does pre-written information require deep, structural revision or just high-level proofreading?
- How many revision cycles does the client want before receiving the final assets?
- If needed, should the specialist be a new hire, a contractor, or a remote partner?
Some projects may benefit from additional clarity, but these questions are a good starting point. Run the answers through your historical data and metrics. Keep in mind that every organization’s metrics are as diverse as the talent they hire. Try to compare your project to similar projects you completed in the past. If you don’t have such metrics, consider finding a consultant to help with this process.
Expect the Unexpected
Certain variables make every project unique. That’s why it’s critical to factor in the unexpected, including potential risks. Consider the following factors to estimate the cost of a project more accurately:
- A source document has many authors.
- A document requires a disproportionate number of tables or figures.
- The text uses many cross-references and other dynamic fields.
- The final product will contain embedded live data from other sources.
- Project stakeholders with limited experience want to edit complex documents throughout the project timeline.
- Source documents contain repeated or similar content that must be revised the same way in every instance (applicable in the absence of a component content management system, or CCMS).
- The data is poorly organized or there is an excessive amount of source content to sift through.
- The project schedule has a tight timeline that requires extra creatives to maintain overall quality.
It’s less stressful—and usually more affordable—to have realistic expectations before starting a project rather than surging ahead with a limited sense of scope.
Estimate Project Costs
Once you’ve calibrated your metrics, it’s time to estimate the cost of the project. There are several solutions for project and billing structures common to the business communication industry.
1. Partner with a Project Team
Project teams can accomplish individual tasks on most projects remotely. ProEdit’s off-site project team includes copywriters, technical writers, editors, illustrators, and instructional designers with diverse experience across industries and deliverable platforms. Projects are billed hourly plus any expenses, such as travel.
A statement of work (SOW) outlines each project’s parameters, the expected deliverables, the schedule, and the maximum estimated cost. Clients are ONLY billed for the actual number of hours worked on the project. Weekly or monthly invoices are accompanied by a status report detailing the workloads completed in those hours, the milestones and status of the project as a whole, and the plans for the coming week, as appropriate.
2. Set a Retainer
Sometimes, project needs vary and are ongoing. In such an instance, a retainer-based, on-demand SOW or scope of work can simplify project management. At ProEdit, many clients set their own retainer amount representing at least eight hours of work. This allows the project account manager to provide a time estimate for approval before our team begins work. Project hours are worked against the retainer amount at rates comparable to project-based SOWs.
3. Staff New Talent
Staffing up is one of the most efficient ways to tackle projects that demand heavy, long-term cooperation between project team members and SMEs. Recruitment is one way that ProEdit operates as a vendor-partner with our clients. Contact our staffing team for more specific estimates based on your region, industry, and job description.
4. Explore Other Project Estimate Approaches
The industry offers other project and billing structures. For example, some freelancers on websites like Upwork, Fiver, or TaskRabbit bill per word. At ProEdit, we use word count to inform our estimated completion time, but not our billing, for time-tracking purposes. We believe that cost-per-word billing encourages content stuffing and formatting shortcuts at the expense of quality.
Another common billing arrangement is charging a flat fee for an entire project. However, client involvement tends to be limited during the project life cycle in this approach. Team members create the project in a bubble, and clients rarely get to review immediate drafts before delivery of final assets. This is a project risk. ProEdit prefers to partner with clients throughout each project because experience has shown us that collaboration produces the greatest likelihood of project success.
Don’t Feel Intimidated: We Can Estimate the Project Budget together
Accurate project estimation has to consider several factors. So, if you’re working on a creative project, tell us about it. Our friendly, expert team members can answer your questions and provide a clear, simple estimate that we’ll stand behind.