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The world's most powerful estimation and project intelligence software, powered by the largest database of its kind.

software project estimation

Estimate, Track, and Benchmark Your Software Projects

Make better business decisions at every stage of the software project lifecycle - estimating, tracking, and metrics analysis. Each of QSM's SLIM (Software Lifecycle Management) products is designed to deliver powerful results, either as a standalone application or as part of QSM's integrated suite.

Drawing from a database of over 14,000 verified software projects, the tools enable better decision making at every stage of the project development life cycle - estimating, tracking, and metrics analysis.

SLIM-Estimate
Estimation software that helps you make realistic, data-driven cost and schedule estimates.

Popular Features
Early scope estimates
Risk management
Resource capacity planning
SLIM-Control
Project tracking software that helps you compare project plans to actuals and forecasts to completion.

Popular Features
Project oversight
Measure productivity
Early project warnings
SLIM-Metrics
Benchmarking software that allows you to measure your organization against the industry's top performers.

Popular Features
Analyze completed projects
Quantify process improvement
14,000 industry projects
SLIM-Collaborate
Web-based estimation software that offers everyone in your enterprise access to the information that matters most.

Popular Features
Efficient stakeholder communication
Forecast resource demand
Share project & portfolio data
SLIM-MasterPlan
Estimation software that helps you analyze organizational portfolios and plan large complex system integrations.

Popular Features
Program level estimates
Evaluate portfolio risk
What-if analysis
SLIM-DataManager
Data repository software that helps you create a sharable corporate database of your completed projects

Popular Features
Capture standardized metrics
Interface to other databases
Create custom metrics

QSM by the Numbers

Founded in 1978, our estimation products and services are time-tested and backed by data. Let us help you negotiate achievable goals, set realistic expectations and communicate more effectively with your colleagues and customers.

14000
project database
46
years in business
100000000
saved by our clients

Our Clients

Trusted by Fortune 100 companies across the globe, QSM offers you multi-national experience and the most competent professionals in the software measurement and estimation business.

Start saving time and money with QSM today.

With tools to support every part of the software project lifecycle, QSM helps you find data-driven solutions to your most important challenges.
save time with software project estimation

What's New with QSM?

Learn more about software estimation best practices, risk management, software trends, and the latest research from the QSM database of 14,000 completed software projects.

This study provides a long-term perspective using data from 14,000+ software projects completed and put into production between January of 1980 and the present day.
Quantifying software project risk and having a systematic way to accounting for it in software estimates helps firms determine how much contingency (or management reserve) is needed to protect against factors like scope growth, lower than anticipated productivity, or technical challenges that keep teams from executing project plans as originally intended.  When risk mitigation is an explicit part of the estimate, we can set reasonable client and management expectations and negotiate practical project plans with a higher likelihood of success.
Bottoms-up planning requires much more detailed information on Work Breakdown Structures, tasks and resource types that are simply not available at this stage of decision-making. Estimation times can take many weeks to months to try and derive this level of information and can involve many subject matter experts whose time is better spent defining the customer solution than trying to create detailed plans when the scope is ill defined. Any changes to the bottoms-up estimate assumptions require additional, lengthy and costly rework cycles.