That's a really good article - and the only contribution I have is that one of the "estimating errors" I will admit to making in years past is not knowing how long it takes to do some of the tasks that are being expressed as time and materials.
If I had a bad fire loss, or tree that really hammered the roof framing, I used to sit there wondering if I should allow 4, or maybe 8 hours for extra labor to perform Temporary Bracing and Shoring (plus some lumber materials).
Then I learned the hard way that this is basically the time it takes to figure out materials and do a round-trip to the lumber yard and get the show on the road.
I got sort of burned out from working claims for 14 years and worked construction for a year, then got back into claims. During that year I learned that the oddball labor items that don't fit into a unit cost - will often involve a crew, and not just one guy. And "it isn't a perfect world" so the repair you visualize sitting at your desk may not go that way in the real world.
I shouldn't be too hard on myself - at least I usually recognized that the scope item was needed. So it wasn't totally omitted. But when I encounter odd stuff like that today, I think in terms of "2 man crew and this is going to screw up their day sufficiently that they may not be able to schedule another customer, so that's 16 hours right there" which is a lot different than 4 hours. (of course there are tiny scope items that will be 1 hour, and that's OK).
We just had a lot of wind in my area and I looked at 5 tree vs house claims this week - and lots of fencing. The big fencing contractors here don't care if the Min Charge in your database is $250, they will tell you that a 2 man crew and a truck is going to be allocated for 1/2 day and they won't get out of bed for less than $500. I used to hear that and look at my database and get frustrated, and think they were just greedy. Especially if you had a different homeowner that submitted a reasonable bid (starving contractor or handyman).
After seeing what it takes to make ends meet - I am more sympathetic to those issues and think twice before I assume the task can be done in a couple hours. Maybe I will call another fence contractor, and if they won't get out of bed for less than $450 I will recommend the increase over the database price from $250 up to the $450 amount of claim "based on local market condtions" and include the contractor phone numbers on the estimate note.
But you can't really stuff that into a checklist on your article - it wouldn't make sense unless the adjuster had bumped his shins a few times and realized himself how the real world relates to the estimate he is writing. Your article hits the big errors and it's a nice asset to our profession.
On thing I will say - is that it is an error to think that every repair step can be expressed by a line item in a database. Just recognizing that one thing is huge. If an adjuster feels like his manager is going to reject an estimate because he inserted a text description of the oddball task, then followed it with a Misc. item (or Time and Materials) then something is wrong. You have to explain, and justify what you are doing. It's the only way to be fair, and for the claim to stay closed.
I will cite an example for my friends who worked the California fires, or any house fire anywhere. When you paint the exterior of a house that has landscaping, you may have BBQ bushes that get pulled - or you may just have smoke damage to the exterior and NEED TO TIE BACK the bushes in order to prep and paint that exterior.
That is not included in the paint item, and it would be silly to look for a database item to "tie back bushes". You just need to figure out how many hours, don't overlook the needed scope item, and explain it in the estimate. If you failed to explain it, someone is going to see that you are painting a house, and giving a "gift" of 2 men for 3 hours because you are a nice guy. You just have to explain it, and make it make sense to someone else reading your estimate.