I worked on an estimation tool[1] inspired by PERT 3-point estimates for a while, simply because there weren&#x27;t any when I went looking one time.<p>It was a lot of fun reading up on the estimation literature in various disciplines. Personally I think that the real magic of PERT 3-point estimation is the &quot;unpacking effect&quot; -- making people think about the subtasks of a headline issue.<p>When I&#x27;m in situations where I point a story, I like to ensure that we engineers say aloud what assumptions we&#x27;re pointing on (&quot;Bootstrap will make responsive mobile almost free&quot;) and then a quick low-detail breakdown of expected tasks (&quot;new page, new RESTful endpoint, new model code&quot;).<p>I find that the latter, in particular, makes a big difference in how pointing goes.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;confidest.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;confidest.com</a>