For many custom development service providers calculating man-hours required to complete a software development project is a rocket science and a huge pain in the neck. As a rule, rough man-hour estimations that clients receive from developers is a far cry from the actually spent hours, which results in overheads and unhappy clients who don't trust their provider and believe they add up hours to make more money from their project. In fact, that's not true in most of cases! Today, we're facing a tough competition for price points and software development providers rarely blow up client's budget in order to win and retain them. That's a typical reality for many clients in software development: [caption id="attachment_15749" align="aligncenter" width="726"] Source: dou.ua[/caption] And that's the reality for project developers: Each time we receive a request for quote (RFQ) from a prospective client, we provide general estimate in man-hours that's based on our experience with similar projects and our historical data.