[senseitit]

Start writing the brief/project charter with all the stakeholders to map out their expectations. Based on it, create the initial plan for the project by breaking it down into smaller tasks, grouped by task lists for better organization. What we do next is to analyze any similar projects we had in the past and how long it took to complete them, so we can estimate time budgets for new tasks.

Our clients use https://paymoapp.com, where we add the initial plan as a temporary project. Once all time budgets and costs are set up, we convert the project into an estimate and share it with the client.

The client then reviews the estimate and either accepts or rejects it. If accepted, we go into production.

[brianpgordon]

Paymo looks amazing, and the price point is crazy low. I can't believe I haven't heard of this before.

You don't use the time-tracking capabilities for software development though, do you? While I could see myself loving to use the tool on my own, being on a team that's required to account for every minute of time (assisted by friendly tracking software no less!) sounds horrible.

[senseitit]

In fact we do, but more as a diagnosis tool to see how much it took us to complete a task and how to prioritize it in the future. We're not expected to account for every minute, that wouldn't be human (and productive) at all.