Estimating the time required to perform some task or tasks.
0
votes
1answer
63 views
Tool helping with estimations [closed]
I am looking for a tool supporting me with estimations.
What I would like to do is to specify a higher level task and break it into several smaller tasks. When a task is small enough, I could assign ...
4
votes
2answers
215 views
Efficient way to create a code estimation/technical specification in a fast-moving environment
To better understand my question, let me elaborate the background of the subject matter.
I work in a financial institution where the business module (credit finance) is constantly changing. In the IT ...
1
vote
2answers
121 views
How are effort estimations and duration estimations distinct?
How are effort estimations and duration estimations distinct?
At present my understanding is that effort is related to the amount of work required for one person to complete a task, and duration is ...
4
votes
1answer
586 views
Which string search algorithm is actually the fastest?
I have been stuck for some time on which is the fastest string search algorithm, heard many opinions, but in the end I'm not sure.
I have heard some people saying that the fastest algorithm is ...
0
votes
1answer
237 views
Where did the estimation rule of thumb originate that time spent will be one-third in each of the following: design, implementation, and testing?
I'm looking for a reference to the following. I commonly hear that one-third of a projects time will be spent in design, one-third in implementation, and one-third in testing. The three phases of ...
-3
votes
1answer
528 views
quick approach to migrate classic asp project to asp.net [duplicate]
Recently we got a requirement for converting a classic asp project to asp.net.
This one is really a very old project created around 2002/2003. It consists of around 50 asp pages. I found very little ...
7
votes
5answers
416 views
Should the number of developers be considered when estimating a task?
I am pretty inexperienced with working in agile projects but I have tried it a few times and I always run into this problem when estimating a task.
Do we bring into the estimate the number of ...
8
votes
7answers
428 views
How long to spend estimating programming tasks?
For example, if I break a project into n discrete work products (say classes or functions or components) is there a time t such that n*t is a suitable amount of time to spend on estimation?
11
votes
6answers
591 views
How can I estimate projects when I need to include a learning curve for new technology?
Sometimes, there are research and development projects where nothing is known in advance about the technology, concepts, and client. However, the manager still needs time estimates. What can I do to ...
1
vote
2answers
655 views
Good examples for teaching software estimation (size, schedule, effort)?
I'm going to be teaching a class that covers a broad brush of estimation techniques. I intend to cover absolute estimation techniques based on SLOC (e.g. Function Points, COCOMO II etc.) and ...
11
votes
6answers
754 views
What is the acceptable error margin when estimating a project duration?
The company where I work is aiming to have a 10% maximum error margin.They expect analysts to not miss the estimate by more or less than 10%.
I don't know what to think about it, since I got nothing ...
0
votes
2answers
609 views
Which user-story estimation technique is better? [closed]
I found two techniques for estimating user stories:
by the size of the story, which is unit-less
by the time estimate, which is measured by days
The first uses relative comparison between stories ...
55
votes
18answers
4k views
Completion time on a company where the supervisors don't know programming
We are in a small company with around 10 developers. I am the team leader and responsible for the development process.
Supervisors and salesmen are close to us since we are a small team, but have no ...
4
votes
3answers
226 views
How should I log time spent on multiple tasks?
In Joel's blog on evidence based scheduling he suggests making estimates based on the smallest unit of work and logging extra work back to the original task.
The problem I'm now experiencing is that ...
7
votes
5answers
427 views
Assuming “clean code/architecture” is there a difference in “effort” between PHP or Java/J2EE web application development?
A client asked us to estimate effort when selecting PHP as the implementation language for his next web-based application. We spent about a week exploring PHP, prototyping, testing etc., We are quite ...
4
votes
3answers
196 views
How to infer my Assumptions I based my time estimate on?
In an answer on how to make time estimates it is said to write down all your assumptions you made when estimating a project. Seems like a good plan.
Problem is, by assuming I already made an ass out ...
0
votes
4answers
292 views
How do you estimate? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to respond when you are asked for an estimate?
What are the estimation methods you use in real world projects and found it to be useful. I know there will be lot of ...
5
votes
2answers
313 views
Calculation of Milestones/Task list
My project manager assigned me a task to estimate the development time for an iPad application. Lets assume that I gave estimation of 15 working days. He thought that the number of days where too many ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
In Scrum, what to do when story points and task hours don't roughly correlate?
Our development team is pretty new to the scrum process, so I would like to help refine our methods to make better use of it. In particular, I noticed that the correlation between story points and ...
2
votes
2answers
281 views
Reestimation (ideal hours + elapsed time)
At the beginning of every iteration our whiteboard is covered with "not started" stories estimated in IDEAL HOURS. On a daily basis we update these estimates to keep track of each task's progress. I ...
16
votes
7answers
1k views
How to explain that it's hard to estimate the time required for a bigger software project?
I'm a junior developer and I find it hard to estimate how much time it takes to finish a bigger software project. I know how to structure the architecture in general, but it's hard for me to know what ...
5
votes
8answers
1k views
How do great enterprises estimate software development efforts?
I was learning about how to estimate software development effort, and would like to know how successful enterprises estimate their projects. How they do to know how much time a system will spend to ...
18
votes
3answers
419 views
Providing Estimates When working With Unfamiliar Technology?
I was presented with a new problem recently, to provide an estimate for a project in which I must use a framework (and potentially bits of another framework) that I am unfamiliar with. It's much ...
2
votes
5answers
648 views
Statistics on time estimates for web application
I have been asked to help estimate the time it would take to develop a web application. I will not be involved in the actual programming, but I am participating as an "experienced" programmer. The ...
20
votes
13answers
1k views
Encouraging software engineers to track time
How can I encourage my coworkers to track the time they spend resolving issues and implementing features? We have software to do this, but they just don't enter the numbers.
I want the team to get ...
3
votes
5answers
309 views
How do you manage project estimation and managing your teams time
I'm thinking of things like:
designating a developer having say 6 hours out of their normal 7.5 hour day dedicated to the project, the rest for other work/company related activity (meetings, emails, ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How to calculate the size of a project in the days-person unit of measurement?
Once in a while I have read here and there the size of a project expressed in a matter of days-person or person-day.
I may understand what this means, but I don't know on what do people base ...
2
votes
3answers
222 views
Delivering estimates and client expectations?
When a client asks for an estimate on how long it would take to develop different sections of an app, is it best to give them a total amount or what it would take for each section?
Is it better/more ...
5
votes
7answers
1k views
What is the relationship between the time it takes to develop N lines of code and 4N lines of code?
It took me time T to develop program A, which is measured at 1000 lines of code (SLOC), in certain a language and domain and of a certain complexity. Is there a method to determine how much time it ...
92
votes
20answers
4k views
Project Manager that wants to lock in time estimate with a signed contract
At a previous employment, a project manager (PM) wasn't satisfied with the delivery time of the code on a project I was on. I was told by my project lead that that the PM was considering having me ...
22
votes
13answers
1k views
Sales Manager: “Why is time-estimation so complex?”
A few days ago a sales manager asked me that question. But at this moment I didn't know a answer which he can understand. He isn't a programmer!
At the moment I work on a product which is over 8 ...
21
votes
11answers
1k views
What to do when time estimation goes wrong?
Let’s say you estimated time for a case to be 3 days.
In day two you notice that the case is growing and new scenarios are popping up which were not counted when the time estimation where done. The ...
8
votes
6answers
512 views
Who should participate in time estimation?
In an IT project:
Who should participate in time estimation? Developer, team leader, scrum master and etc?
Whose vote should be counted most?
48
votes
37answers
1k views
What can I do to get better at estimating how long projects are going to take?
I don't want to make life hard for management. I really don't. They're nice enough guys, but every time I am assigned a new project or task and get asked "how long do you think it will take to do ...
