RE: Techniques for Estimating Time

["Leslie Johnson" <lesliej -at- microsoft -dot- com>]

Hi Anthony!

Welcome to the list - I think you'll find it a great resource.

Techniques - the only fool-proof technique I've ever found is to create
a TOC for the job early, and then break the job down into its component
tasks at a granular level. Then you can estimate the time required for
each of the granular tasks. If you use a calendar and your time
estimates, you can come up with dates. For example:

- Write 1st draft chapter 1 (don't forget that chapter 1 is defined
elsewhere)					24 - 32 hours
Sept. 25
- Technical review of chapter 1	8 - 12 hours		Sept. 27
- Incorporate tech review edits	4 - 6 hours			Sept. 28
- Editing pass of chapter 1		6 - 8 hours
Sept. 29
- Incorporate ch. 1 edits		3 - 6 hours
Sept. 30
Etc.

You get the idea. If you don't know how much to estimate for each task,
there are 2 possible solutions:
1. In a current job, for the purposes of learning how to estimate, take
the time to track the time you require for each task, then when you're
finished, divide the number of pages by the total hours for the task to
get an estimated page count/hour. You can use this as a metric going
forward (obviously you'll need to refine the metric as you go).
2. If you dig a bit, you'll find that industry-standard metrics exist.
(I used to know where to find them, but I grabbed a hard copy for my
records and have gotten lazy about tracking an online source since
then.) You can use this as the basis for how you estimate your own time.

The granular task-level estimating process is not something that I
enjoy, obviously because it's grinding work that I *have* to do rather
than doing the writing, which I *like* to do. However, if a client
requests an estimate (and they all do), this is a way to estimate the
time for a project. If you're a contractor, you can use this as the
basis for your cost estimate as well.

Good luck! Anthony, please let me know if I can help in any other way.

Leslie Johnson
Microsoft 



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