Estimating MSP projects: scope, assumptions and contingency
For pre-sales engineers, project managers and account managers at a managed service provider who price fixed-scope projects such as migrations, network refreshes and office moves. You'll break the work down so nothing is missed or counted twice, write assumptions and exclusions a customer can check, use ranges for uncertain items, set contingency from identified risks and past projects, and compare estimates with actuals. It adapts general cost-estimating practice from the US GAO and UK government guidance to small IT projects. Comfortable with basic spreadsheet arithmetic; your company's rates, contingency policy and approval limits apply.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 74 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Break a project into work items so that nothing is omitted or double-counted
- Write assumptions and exclusions that a customer can check and that trigger a re-estimate if they prove false
- Calculate hours, cost and a range for a project from a three-point estimate
- Choose a contingency based on identified risks and past project data rather than a gut feel
- Compare estimates with actual hours after a project and feed the difference back into future estimates
Course outline
- 1.Breaking a project into work items, nothing omitted or double-countedLesson · 14 min
- 2.Writing assumptions and exclusions a customer can checkLesson · 14 min
- 3.Calculating hours, cost and a range from three-point estimatesLesson · 16 min
- 4.Choosing contingency from risks and past project dataLesson · 14 min
- 5.Comparing estimates with actuals and feeding backLesson · 8 min
- 6.Estimating MSP projects: scope, assumptions and contingency: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Estimating MSP projects: scope, assumptions and contingency: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- US GAO: Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide (GAO-20-195G), product page
- US GAO: Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide: Best Practices for Developing and Managing Program Costs (GAO-20-195G, March 2020), full text
- Infrastructure and Projects Authority: Cost Estimating Guidance (GOV.UK)
- HM Treasury: Green Book supplementary guidance, optimism bias (GOV.UK)
See it with your own jobs and topics
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