The effects of request formats on judgment-based effort estimation
In this paper we study the effects of a change from the traditional request How much effort is required to complete X? to the alternative How much can be completed in Y work-hours?. Studies 1 and 2 report that software professionals receiving the alternative format provided much lower, and presumably more optimistic, effort estimates of the same software development work than those receiving the traditional format. Studies 3 and 4 suggest that the effect belongs to the family of anchoring effects. An implication of our results is that project managers and clients should avoid the alternative estimation request format.
effort estimation anchoring human judgment