Cost Estimation???
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
1: Find a magic lamp. 2: Rub it. 3: When the genie appears, ask him for the estimate. 4: Double it. and you'll still be wrong... :laugh: In reality there are 2 major parts to a time estimate: the number of man hours required to complete a given task and the actual time that those man hours will be spread across given that people get sick, have holidays, don't turn up, chat, skive off, etc, etc. So an estimate of 16 man hours might take a week to complete even though it's only 2 man days.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
Base timescales on your own experience not what a book says. I generally allow 2 days for a simple Winform and testing it, 2-3 days to write a reasonably complicated routine with SQL access although with DAL and BL type projects a lot of work is performed "up front" and so later work can be quicker. Don't forget to allow for unit and system testing and fight to keep that time in a plan as that's the first wasted (in their eyes) time that managers think can be shortened - fools!
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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1: Find a magic lamp. 2: Rub it. 3: When the genie appears, ask him for the estimate. 4: Double it. and you'll still be wrong... :laugh: In reality there are 2 major parts to a time estimate: the number of man hours required to complete a given task and the actual time that those man hours will be spread across given that people get sick, have holidays, don't turn up, chat, skive off, etc, etc. So an estimate of 16 man hours might take a week to complete even though it's only 2 man days.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
I agree with the doubling. Get a reasonable time (to you!) and then add on the same again for mishaps, errors, spec changes (yes it does happen :) ) etc.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
Very difficult to do. The normal sequence is: Your experience tells you how long it took you to do a similar project in the past. Assume it is going to take at least that long, and add some 10 - 20% for over-run. Then think it over again, and probably double it - if it was that close to the previous project, you would have done it already. Then think - "does everybody on the team know everything they need to know before they start?" If not, add training time. Take the number you just came up with, in man-days, and multiply by the number of people in the team - don't forget the PM and the team management - this is your final number. Then present it to the management, and see it be cut to about a tenth. Expect to get blamed when you go over that time.
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together.
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1: Find a magic lamp. 2: Rub it. 3: When the genie appears, ask him for the estimate. 4: Double it. and you'll still be wrong... :laugh: In reality there are 2 major parts to a time estimate: the number of man hours required to complete a given task and the actual time that those man hours will be spread across given that people get sick, have holidays, don't turn up, chat, skive off, etc, etc. So an estimate of 16 man hours might take a week to complete even though it's only 2 man days.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Yes, but Genie Implementation is a bugger. Unless you download MagicCarpet 2.1 it is unstable and leads to unforeseen consequences.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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Yes, but Genie Implementation is a bugger. Unless you download MagicCarpet 2.1 it is unstable and leads to unforeseen consequences.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
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Yes, but Genie Implementation is a bugger. Unless you download MagicCarpet 2.1 it is unstable and leads to unforeseen consequences.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC League Table Link CCC Link[^]
:laugh:
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
Sorry, but I tend to agree with your colleague. Think about what the project in question is/should be worth (which, again, you'll only know once you've been around the industry a few times) and then work to that. The alternative is finding a workplace where the requirements are always right the first time and you never get interrupted by other projects :P
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Sorry, but I tend to agree with your colleague. Think about what the project in question is/should be worth (which, again, you'll only know once you've been around the industry a few times) and then work to that. The alternative is finding a workplace where the requirements are always right the first time and you never get interrupted by other projects :P
CurtainDog wrote:
finding a workplace where the requirements are always right the first time and you never get interrupted by other projects
...and then we woke up.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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CurtainDog wrote:
finding a workplace where the requirements are always right the first time and you never get interrupted by other projects
...and then we woke up.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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CurtainDog wrote:
finding a workplace where the requirements are always right the first time and you never get interrupted by other projects
...and then we woke up.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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Baconbutty wrote:
...and then we woke up.
Rubs eyes, it was all a horrible dream.
Two heads are better than one.
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He probably meant Rolled over Farted Scratched nether regions Belched Yawned loudly Scratched again Hacking cough Got out of bed.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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He probably meant Rolled over Farted Scratched nether regions Belched Yawned loudly Scratched again Hacking cough Got out of bed.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
I don't think it's acceptable in a modern business for a team member to 'not believe in estimations'. A business is going to look to its technical staff to try and quantify how much effort will be required to complete a project so that they can determine whether or not there is an associated value. I think what your colleague is really saying is that he's not very good at estimation - if it's any consolation, most of us aren't! I've been developing for around 10 years now and have always been required to provide estimations. Over the years I've got better at estimating - due to a combination of experience and practice. Don't forget that an estimate is exactly that - a best guess at how long it's going to take to complete a piece of work. If the specification changes, the estimate should be reviewed. In Agile development, there's an encouragement to estimate work in a comparative basis, rather than in hours or days; for example, saying that a piece of work X will take twice as long as a piece of work Y. Again this is more of a trial and error approach but eventually you'll figure out what a 'unit' of work consists of and you can determine your estimates from here. This article[^] contains a reasonable summary of estimating. If you want to get better at estimating, you need to start doing it! Next time you get a project, break it down into smaller segments and try and figure out how long each of these will take. Review this during the project (e.g. as new requirements come to light) and at the end review how long it took you to complete each task. It will require a bit of discipline but ultimately it's a tool that you should possess as a professional developer.
Sarchasm : The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
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Hello everybody, What are the steps and skills required to estimate the cost of a project or some programming task, I don't want 100% exact estimate, but I want some indicator for the time needed, and for the progress, my collueage at work doesn't believe in Estimates, so he prefers to not do estimation at all, (he has 3 years experience, while I have only about 1 year experience, ) and becuase of this we can never give boss an estimate to our projects, which I believe not to be good, so experienced developer what can I do to do good estimation for my work?? Thanks so much
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He probably meant Rolled over Farted Scratched nether regions Belched Yawned loudly Scratched again Hacking cough Got out of bed.
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar!
Should we be worried that you know his morning schedule?
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
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Should we be worried that you know his morning schedule?
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
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well I certainly do those, but not neccessary in that order, but Having no reference I will bow to your beliefs and start worrying that iam am abnormal:~
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
