Project quotations
Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2006 11:09 am
Over the years I've fine tuned my quotations, but still they are not as accurate as I would like...
Typically I estimate a project by basically breaking the project into many small parts and in the process essentially design a draft of the project design documentation...
Minus any flowcharts, etc which IMHO are usually worthless from a developer standpoint, but non-tech savvy users seem to like them...
Anyways, here is my problem...as a psuedo-consultant...the market almost demands that I offer free projecty estimates as everyone in their dog does so...web design firms, etc...
I'm curious as to how others estimate projects...and do you charge for estimates?
I suppose I could look at the big piuture...and take a wild guess plus tack on 30-40 percent, but that wouldn't be very ethical of me...and for one reason or another, that bugs me...
Clearly though, I cannot spend a week estimating a project, while drafting a design document...
I've considered telling clients this and selling them the design document in the end...so I get rewarded for my time spent, but the problem is...design documents are by no means standardized...
What works for me...might crash in someone else's face...
So I ask...when you estimate projects...do you just determine the number of *views* in a web application and the number of *actions* in a web application and multiply those numbers by the number of fields per view or action???
What is your technique for expediting estimation and hoping for accuracy?
Cheers
Typically I estimate a project by basically breaking the project into many small parts and in the process essentially design a draft of the project design documentation...
Minus any flowcharts, etc which IMHO are usually worthless from a developer standpoint, but non-tech savvy users seem to like them...
Anyways, here is my problem...as a psuedo-consultant...the market almost demands that I offer free projecty estimates as everyone in their dog does so...web design firms, etc...
I'm curious as to how others estimate projects...and do you charge for estimates?
I suppose I could look at the big piuture...and take a wild guess plus tack on 30-40 percent, but that wouldn't be very ethical of me...and for one reason or another, that bugs me...
Clearly though, I cannot spend a week estimating a project, while drafting a design document...
I've considered telling clients this and selling them the design document in the end...so I get rewarded for my time spent, but the problem is...design documents are by no means standardized...
What works for me...might crash in someone else's face...
So I ask...when you estimate projects...do you just determine the number of *views* in a web application and the number of *actions* in a web application and multiply those numbers by the number of fields per view or action???
What is your technique for expediting estimation and hoping for accuracy?
Cheers