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Subject:Re: Estimating a Project From:"Gary S. Callison" <huey -at- interaccess -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 31 Mar 2003 13:55:42 -0600 (CST)
On Fri, 28 Mar, scottiecornwell -at- yahoo -dot- com (S) sez:
> Does anyone have a "magic" formula for estimating documentation?
The back-of-envelope guess I've been using is (("5 hours per page" +
"figure high and add") + 15%) to go from 'ambiguously described scope of
project' to 'camera-ready proof', but that doesn't help if you don't know
how long the thing is going to be. This is where experience comes in.
Except for little fiddly projects, I start with an information plan where
I try to come up with a scope for the project that's less ambiguous than
whatever I was originally handed. For example, on Friday I got "There's
this piece of software: I don't know exactly what it does, or even where
you can find it, but I want you to find it, figure out what it does, and
write a statement of work for the next major revision of it". Since then,
I've found it, installed it, puzzled out most of the business rules that
drive the thing, gotten a general idea of what the functional
requirements of the thing are, and I'm ready to start outlining what the
document is gonna look like. I'm guessing I can name this tune in five
or six pages or so.
So now the magic: I'll be done by COB Thursday. To get that, I took a
guess, multiplied by another guess, added a random amount, and rounded up.
I spoke to four SMEs on Friday: the first said "Don't worry about it", the
second said "You know as much about it as I do", the third said "I ~think~
that's how it works", and the fourth hasn't returned any emails. I'll have
a rough draft on all four of them in a day or so, at which point one or
more of them will say "No, that's wrong". The SME who didn't return any
emails yet will not do so until Wednesday night, and which point I will
have to tear the thing apart and start over.
But I'll be done by COB Thursday. ...assuming that I don't get any "Drop
what you're doing and work on _this_ instead"...
...dammit, I forgot about that. Okay, I'll be done a week from Thursday.
--
Huey
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