How to estimate project time?

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pjcvijay
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How to estimate project time?

Post by pjcvijay »

Hello,
How do you estimate project duration for a big project?

Please share your experience!!!

Thanks in advance,
Vijay
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Eran
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by Eran »

Break it down into smaller tasks until the task size can be estimated in single-digits hours.
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Technocrat
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by Technocrat »

Make sure you and your client have a clear understanding of the project and goals. Make sure its in writing.

Always remember to pad your project a bit. Programming doesn't always go as planed.

As pytrin said break it down into smaller tasks. Have an hourly or 1/2 hour rate. Then apply these rates to the time you think it will take per task.

Keep in mind many clients will want to negotiate or bring the price down. You will need to have it in your head if you are willing to do that. If not what can you suggest to the client to bring costs down? Or are you willing to walk away from this client.
pjcvijay
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by pjcvijay »

Thanks for your valuable comments!

If I haven't had previous experience on project/task, how can I do accurate estimation?

Thanks in advance,
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Technocrat
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by Technocrat »

There is no set formula to this. Its totally subjective to you and your skill level. My advice would be to practice and think it through. Think up examples like a client wants a page thats a contact form. They want these fields, first name, last name, phone number, age, email, and comments. They want it emailed to 6 email address. How would you do it? What are the task involved? How much time would each task take? How much do you charge per hour?

Try doing freelance work. Just search php freelance. Then try to do quotes for projects on there. Even if you dont get the jobs you will get practice.
pjcvijay
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by pjcvijay »

Thank you for your reply! :)

I try your suggestion!
alex.barylski
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by alex.barylski »

Close your eyes and imagine the project, really focus!!!

Then find a dart board, grad a dart, close your eyes again (assuming you opened them to find the dart board) and throw THREE darts. Which ever number the middle dart lands on is your magic number. take that number and multiple by 3.

Run traceroute on any random IP and the numbers of hops that come back to you is again multipled by the previous number.

Takes this number and multiply byt your hourly rate and voila. project esitmation complete.

Cheers,
Alex
minorDemocritus
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by minorDemocritus »

And don't forget to take into account Hofstadter's Law.
josh
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Re: How to estimate project time?

Post by josh »

Charge the most you think the client can afford, but not more ( you want them to make $$ too so there is ongoing work). My advice would be don't agree to any "projects" more than several months. It really is not possible to just break huge projects down every time without a complete & detailed "NASA-like specification", because you're not accounting for possible abstractions, or lack there of, that are created or destroyed by future changes to the spec... You just have to use common sense and always over price. Double your estimates if you are just starting... you'll need a % of your time to learn.
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