The first thing to do is not quote to complete the work.
Quote to do the requirements analysis for the system. Once done, you can
then quote to deliver the implementation.
You have to know how long the piece of string is before you jump...you could
end up hanging yourself!
I would also suggest that you take your work estimate and add 50%-100% to
the cost to cover any unforseen problems. I would also consider stage
payments. 50% on delivery of first site, 25% on delivery of each of the
others. AND get client sign-off on the site. Any change requests after
sign-off should be charged at an agreed hourly rate.
The UK is different, but work is usually at the �1500-3000 per week assuming
a 40hour week. Do it based on how long it will take you, not an estimation
of how long it would take somebody else.
Break down the project into to tasks, each of which should be no longer than
3 days, preferably 1 day or less. Once you have got all the tasks defined
put them end to end, assume a 5 day week and bingo that's how long it will
take you.
Set mini-milestones. If you slip a milestone by 20% because of poor
estimation (you will never get this perfect), increase all your estimates by
20%. Identify tasks you are poor at estimating...re-estimate...
Read Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules by Steve McConnel
(also read his Code Complete) and his very good Software Project Survival
Guide
Right I'll shut up now.
The whole point is to measure your skill ability, and work to that, but know
what you are working towards. Your first problem is solid requirements...
Adam
> ----------
> From: Scott, Andrew[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 27 September 2000 05:51
> To: CF-Talk
> Subject: RE: Costing a private project..
>
> Its all a matter of time based calculations:-)
>
> The best part is that all 3 sites share a common goal of data syndication,
> will they be hosted on the same server. If they do then you can reuse code
> by making custom tags that are not site dependand and deliver the same
> results, if they are on seperate servers then can the DB be accessed from
> these servers. There are too many unknown variables to begin quoting
> something like this, unless of course you already know them.
>
> Then it would be a matter of then sitting down breaking, everything down
> into components and deciding on how much time would need to be spent on
> each
> component.
>
>
> regards
>
> Andrew Scott
> ANZ eCommerce Centre
> * Ph 9273 0693
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Angel Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 27 September 2000 09:30
> To: CF-Talk
> Subject: Costing a private project..
>
>
> I need a little help here guys and gals..how would you cost this project?
>
> To develop 3 websites that will be linked by one user database, offer
> items
> on sale across all three sites, again coming from a single inventory.
> Things
> like items on Special, weekly discounts..membership, User Polls.
> a system whereby news articles on teh sites can be updated by people
> without
> any HTML knowledge....and all of the above must be managed with a browser
> based interface.
> The implementation of mailing lists for all three sites, weekly
> newsletters
> and of course the ongoing maintenance of all of these.
>
> This seems like a very hefty undertaking to me, depending on how complex
> the
> client wants to go with it...
> but, how would you folks price a project like this if you were doing it?
>
> I don't want to sell myself short, neither do I want to price myself out
> of
> the range of the client :-\
>
> -Gel
>
>
>
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