On Estimation…

Posted by mkhairul - August 4, 2008 at 11:08:31 am -

Categories: Development, Notes, Tips, blog

Here’s an entry on the wiki on Estimation. Since we got a few new guys (some are trainee), I thought it might help them. Below is an example of an estimation writeup.

What is Online Trial Exam Form?

A small application to allow users to register (to participate in an online trial exam) and the admin to process the registrants.

Important: If asked to give an estimate on the spot, please, tell them you’ll comeback later. Take at least 1-2 hours in breaking down tasks and estimation.

The user (we will use the term admin here, the person who request the application) requires the following function (user requirements) :

• The user (potential students) can enter in their information to participate in a trial exam.
  • Get the fields required. Ask which field is mandatory and why if it is not obvious (one of the obvious field is email, of course email is mandatory or else how do the system inform the user how to participate in the trial exam). 30 minutes.
    
  • Each registration have a time-frame. i.e. Each day starts from 5am to 5pm. If a user registers on 30th August 2008 @ 5.01pm, it will count as the user registers on 31st August 2008.1 hour
    
• The admin can view list of dates (or we can call a time-frame, as each day starts from 5am to 5pm, beyond that will spill into the following day’s date) and total of registration for each date.30 minutes
  
• The admin can view list of students in a given date. 30 minutes
  
• The admin can process a given date.
  • The system will iterate through list of registrant and send an email containing the details required to use the online examination system. 1 hour
    
  • The admin can reprocess a given date (skips users who have been processed). 30 minutes
    

Ok thats all I can remember for now. Add it all up, 30 + 60 + 30 + 30 + 60 + 30 = 240 minutes = 4 hours

Here we will apply the rule "When estimating a task, take your first estimate, double it, and add 50%." Double it to 8 hours, and add 50%, which results in 12 hours.

I would like to add an additional calculation to this. The number of people required to finish the task. In my case:

• System Analyst, 10%
  • The one who requests the system, I have to get his feedback alot.
• Solution Architect, 5%
  • Required to sign deployment forms
• Web Master, 3%
  • Required to put it into the main website.
• System Engineer, 2%
  • Troubleshoot network problem
    

4 people, each person have a percentage. It depends on the person actually on how fast he does things (or how busy he is). Add it all up, 14 hours and 20 minutes. This calculation is just a hunch on what I’ve gone through.

The estimated time, from building the application to deploying (encountered problems with the server which does not relay certain connections from certain servers), is nearly accurate. Have to collect more information on it.

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