If you come upon some imponderable scope of work on your project that defies understanding, how do you reflect that in your budget? – Just guess.
Certainly, putting in a zero is the wrong answer.
Consider the work involved. Does this seem like a big thing or a small thing? Is it an essential part of the project or might it be minimized or eliminated? Of course, you should do all the research that you can in the time available. Ask for multiple opinions. When people tell me that they really have no idea, I say, please apply your experience and just guess. I promise I won’t blame you. This may leave me with a group of numbers, sometimes quite close together sometimes wildly different. Then, when time is up, I pick a number.
I rely on my experience and intuition whether to choose on the high side, to encourage the team to focus on the work to prove me wrong, or whether I can safely land on the low side. But even if i have nothing to go on, I still put in some number.
Either way, it’s likely that your overestimates will balance your underestimates And it will certainly be an improvement on a zero.
At least, now you have a number. Every box is checked. It is up to your team to validate the guesses.
I credit my friend, colleague and the Macgyver of architects, Marty Zwick, with the title phrase.
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