Despite the existence of structured methods for software sizing and effort estimation, the so-called "expert" approach seems to be the prevalent way to produce estimates in the software industry. The paired-comparisons method offers a more accurate and precise alternative to "guesstimating."
Citation:
Eduardo Miranda, "Improving Subjective Estimates Using Paired Comparisons," IEEE Software, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 87-91, Jan./Feb. 2001, doi:10.1109/52.903173