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RE: Estimation of Timelines for Documentation Projects

Subject: RE: Estimation of Timelines for Documentation Projects
From: "Vlad Dracul" <vladvampiredracul -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 10:33:22 +0000


David:

Collecting statistics is a good suggestion, and I will pass it on to my
supervisor. I'll refer to the books too. Unfortunately, our documentation is
not optimally segmented; we have these huge, bulky chapters that seem to
mirror software architecture rather than user tasks. So, such organization
makes estimation more difficult than it should be.

Vlad

From: "David Locke" <dlocke -at- texas -dot- net>
To: "Vlad Dracul" <vladvampiredracul -at- hotmail -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Estimation of Timelines for Documentation Projects
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2003 06:03:43 -0500

But, that is just the first estimate. There is the second estimate, the
detailed, post-analysis estimate. This estimate is built on a detailed view
of what you will have to produce: how many pages, how many graphics, how
much front-matter, how much back-matter, the development schedule, source
quality, writer quality, editor quality, production quality, infrastructure,
stability of the production platform,.... You take the counts be they pages,
function points, dialogs and controls, paragraphs, what have you, and use
them as a multiplier for the production standard. The production standard
comes from prior project histories. If you have no histories, make sure you
start collecting the data: what kind of work, how much, how long did it
take. When the averages converge, start over. And, in the absence of
histories or metrics covering your own processes, use industry numbers.
Realize that industry numbers are not competitive, so they won't work in
competitive situations.

A very good book was Schultz'es book, "The Business of Writing." Another is
"Controlling Software Projects." Another just for edification it Bohem's
"Software Economics," or "COMOCO II."


David Locke

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