Case Study: Forecasting the Productivity of Professional Services

In this case study of an architectural/engineering firm, Tonya, Ram, and Robert offer a new technique for projecting the scope and costs of professional-service projects. They utilize historical monthly data to estimate relationships between project outputs on one hand and labor inputs and prior experience on the other. Their model promises to be an upgrade for firms that traditionally develop judgmental projections without the benefit of formal statistical analysis. Copyright International Institute of Forecasters, 2009