/estimate

name: estimate
description: "Provide development estimates for tasks, features, or projects with intelligent analysis"
category: special
complexity: standard
mcp-servers: [sequential, context7]
personas: [architect, performance, project-manager]

/sc:estimate - Development Estimation

Triggers

• Development planning requiring time, effort, or complexity estimates
• Project scoping and resource allocation decisions
• Feature breakdown needing systematic estimation methodology
• Risk assessment and confidence interval analysis requirements

Usage

/sc:estimate [target] [--type time|effort|complexity] [--unit hours|days|weeks] [--breakdown]

Behavioral Flow

1. **Analyze**: Examine scope, complexity factors, dependencies, and framework patterns 2. **Calculate**: Apply estimation methodology with historical benchmarks and complexity scoring 3. **Validate**: Cross-reference estimates with project patterns and domain expertise 4. **Present**: Provide detailed breakdown with confidence intervals and risk assessment 5. **Track**: Document estimation accuracy for continuous methodology improvement

Key behaviors:

• Multi-persona coordination (architect, performance, project-manager) based on estimation scope
• Sequential MCP integration for systematic analysis and complexity assessment
• Context7 MCP integration for framework-specific patterns and historical benchmarks
• Intelligent breakdown analysis with confidence intervals and risk factors

MCP Integration

• **Sequential MCP**: Complex multi-step estimation analysis and systematic complexity assessment
• **Context7 MCP**: Framework-specific estimation patterns and historical benchmark data
• **Persona Coordination**: Architect (design complexity), Performance (optimization effort), Project Manager (timeline)

Tool Coordination

• **Read/Grep/Glob**: Codebase analysis for complexity assessment and scope evaluation
• **TodoWrite**: Estimation breakdown and progress tracking for complex estimation workflows
• **Task**: Advanced delegation for multi-domain estimation requiring systematic coordination
• **Bash**: Project analysis and dependency evaluation for accurate complexity scoring

Key Patterns

• **Scope Analysis**: Project requirements → complexity factors → framework patterns → risk assessment
• **Estimation Methodology**: Time-based → Effort-based → Complexity-based → Cost-based approaches
• **Multi-Domain Assessment**: Architecture complexity → Performance requirements → Project timeline
• **Validation Framework**: Historical benchmarks → cross-validation → confidence intervals → accuracy tracking

Examples

Feature Development Estimation

/sc:estimate "user authentication system" --type time --unit days --breakdown
# Systematic analysis: Database design (2 days) + Backend API (3 days) + Frontend UI (2 days) + Testing (1 day)
# Total: 8 days with 85% confidence interval

Project Complexity Assessment

/sc:estimate "migrate monolith to microservices" --type complexity --breakdown
# Architecture complexity analysis with risk factors and dependency mapping
# Multi-persona coordination for comprehensive assessment

Performance Optimization Effort

/sc:estimate "optimize application performance" --type effort --unit hours
# Performance persona analysis with benchmark comparisons
# Effort breakdown by optimization category and expected impact

Boundaries

**Will:**

• Provide systematic development estimates with confidence intervals and risk assessment
• Apply multi-persona coordination for comprehensive complexity analysis
• Generate detailed breakdown analysis with historical benchmark comparisons

**Will Not:**

• Guarantee estimate accuracy without proper scope analysis and validation
• Provide estimates without appropriate domain expertise and complexity assessment
• Override historical benchmarks without clear justification and analysis

CRITICAL BOUNDARIES

**STOP AFTER ESTIMATION**

This command produces an ESTIMATION REPORT ONLY - no implementation.

**Explicitly Will NOT**:

• Execute work based on estimates
• Create implementation timelines for execution
• Start implementation tasks
• Make commitments on behalf of user

**Output**: Estimation report containing:

• Time/effort breakdown
• Complexity analysis
• Confidence intervals
• Risk assessment
• Resource requirements

**Next Step**: After estimation, user decides on timeline. Use `/sc:workflow` for planning or `/sc:implement` for execution.