ScopeSnap is an AI-powered project estimation tool that helps you break down complex projects into manageable tasks and estimate effort using story points.
Top-down estimation is a project estimation approach that starts with a high-level view of the project and works down to the details. Instead of trying to estimate every individual task from the start, you first consider the project as a whole: its size, scope, complexity, and similarity to past projects.
From this vantage point, you make a broad estimate of overall effort or duration. That estimate can then be broken down into phases, features, or milestones. The strength of this method is speed — it gives a directional estimate early in the process when little detail is available.
The trade-off is accuracy: because it relies on assumptions, analogies, or expert judgment, the estimates are more approximate and should be refined as more information becomes available.
Top-down estimation is especially useful for early project planning, budgeting, and communicating expectations with stakeholders before requirements are fully fleshed out.
In agile estimation, story points are often used as an abstract unit of measure. One common way to make them more tangible is to map them to ideal days. An "ideal day" means how long a task would take if a developer could work on it with no interruptions, full focus, and everything they need available.
A story estimated as 2 ideal days would be something a developer could complete in roughly two days of uninterrupted, focused work.
In reality, actual calendar days are usually longer because of meetings, context switching, blockers, and dependencies. A team may discover that 1 "ideal day" equates to 1.5–2 real days on average.
This translation helps teams bridge the gap between abstract story points and practical scheduling. It anchors estimates to real-world experience while still preserving the flexibility of the story point system.
Use the expand button to break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable subtasks using AI assistance.
Easily reorder tasks and epics by dragging them to new positions in the table.
Use Tab/Shift+Tab to navigate between fields and rows for efficient data entry.
Full undo/redo functionality for all changes, with visual indicators showing available actions.
Export your project data to CSV format for use in other tools or for reporting.
Add detailed project information to help AI generate more accurate task breakdowns.