A project manager meets with a development team to estimate time to build a software application. The developers are new to the company and have never built a similar application. Which estimation technique should the project manager recommend?

Three-point estimating is the most suitable technique because it accounts for uncertainty, which is high with a new team and unfamiliar work. It uses three estimates—optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely—to calculate a weighted average, providing a more realistic duration range. Analogous estimating (top-down) relies on historical data from similar projects, which is unavailable here due to the team's inexperience with this type of application. Parametric estimating uses statistical relationships between historical data and other variables, also requiring historical data that is lacking. Planning poker is a collaborative estimation technique often used in Agile, but it primarily refines estimates rather than generating initial estimates from scratch when there's significant uncertainty and lack of prior experience.