RE: People don't see problems that don't happen

["Barbara Philbrick" <caslon -at- alltel -dot- net>]

 I would go with six-hour days for estimating, depending on your
environment. There are a lot of things that go on that don't directly
contribute to the project (training, status meetings, department meetings).
Plus people need to go to the bathroom and have a coffee or snack once in a
while.

I worked with a firm once that also changed estimates based on seniority
level --- assuming senior level people would have more demands on their
time, such as answering questions from junior folks and coping with
unexpected updates to earlier products. So a senior level person was
expected to be able to put 4 to 5 hours a day toward a project, while junior
level people would be able to put 6 to 7. If only that company had paid
attention to their own estimates....

Barb

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+caslon=alltel -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+caslon=alltel -dot- net -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
Gene Kim-Eng
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 2:23 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: People don't see problems that don't happen

I always base project scheules on eight-hour days even if I expect that they
will take more, so that the project schedule shows resource "overcommits"
already taking place at the start of the projects, before things start going
wrong.  And I try to set estimates based on past similar projects, as
nothing ever seems to go "ideally."  In fact, my concept of "ideal" is when
things actually happen the way I predict they will. :)

Gene KIm-Eng



----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Borokowski" <athloi -at- yahoo -dot- com>

> Another version of this is to do project estimates, even if 
> informally, based on eight hour days, and use that to show that the 
> work won't happen without another person.
> 
> In my experience, it often makes sense to take the amount of time the 
> task would ideally take and multiply it by four. Reality is a lot 
> slower than we would like it to be (except on weekends).

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