Abstract: A system and method for estimating a metric of a proposed product from a document describing the product in an arbitrary degree of detail provides accuracy comparable to a function point assessment of a fully detailed document by parsing a document into a plurality of lines in an outline form and assigning a hierarchy to each line. Values or weights are determined for each of a relatively small plurality of key words in accordance with the key word and the hierarchy level of the line in the parsed document in which the key word is found. An adjustment is made based on a category of the key word such as nouns and verbs and the hierarchy level of the lines as compared with the number of hierarchy levels found in the document. Further adjustments may be made for subject matter domain of the product and the source or author of the document.