And then, you have the "client factor", as in
* Work out a rough estimate
* Double it
* And multiply this result by the "client factor" to give the actual
estimate
You know what I mean,
* If you ever find such a beast, a really good client that knows what
they want and is capable of articulating that, gets a "1" or "1="
* The average clueless client gets about a "2" or "3"
* Anyone with 'President' or 'Director' in their job title gets at
least a "5"
* And we all have those 'Oh, maybe I forgot to mention ...' clients
that definitely rate a "10"
Yeah, I'm getting cynical in my old age
Regards
Mike
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kevin King
Sent: Saturday, 8 March 2008 12:28 p.m.
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [U2] Estimating Timelines
I have to weigh in on this in support of everything stated so far. John is
right, the first estimate is the one that "sticks" so that estimate has to
factor in what is known about the problem, solution, and path at the time the
estimate is requested, which is often before any real discovery has taken
place. The less information known before the estimate, the higher the estimate
will be, if for no other reasons than to make sure everyone is covered with no
surprises. And of course, while customers will do their best to give all of
the information needed at the outset of the task, the reality is that any and
all information needs to be weighed against some kind of objective review to
ensure that the information is accurate and complete. In fact, I believe that
ensuring that all of the important information is on the table is a real art
form! (I mean, hey, that's what discovery and analysis are for, right?) And as
Jerry said, there can be a lot of time invested in those ta!
sks. Asking someone to estimate a complete job - which includes the discovery
and analysis needed to estimate the remainder of the tasks - without having
those tasks completed in advance is pretty much asking for an unknown on a
fixed timeline, which is as close to an impending failure as one can
intentionally get.
For the past several years I've been taking a multi-stage approach to the
larger projects. Certainly on a smaller project I've finally gotten to a point
where I can spitball an estimate pretty reliably, but on the big ones I'll
estimate the discovery separate from the analysis separate from the
implementation+testing+installation. And of course, documentation is
implementation+testing+also
estimated separately. Most customers - to date - have been pretty happy to
give me a small budget for discovery knowing that it pays big dividends in more
accurate estimates for the rest of the project. And accurate, on time, and on
budget makes everyone happy.
-K
http://www.PrecisOnline.com
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