Re: Project Estimates

[Larissa Neumann <neumannl -at- DSCLTD -dot- COM>]

Hi Joy:

I do use JoAnn Hackos'method for estimating projects, including for
revisions of existing documents.

What I usually do is look at the spec, or whatever information I have about
the revision, and try to estimate how many changes I will need to write, and
how many new pages these changes will entail.

Then I take this page count and multiply it by the hours per page rate from
the dependency calculator.

I find that I can apply the dependency calculator to revisions as well as to
new projects.

My estimates are, on average, 90% accurate. Some projects I find I
underestimated, some I have overestimated. As I get more experience
estimating projects, I believe I am becoming more accurate.
Of course if the scope of the project changes  unexpectedly (which happens),
all my lovely estimates and projected release dates may go right out the
window. :-(

In general, I find Hackos method to be a useful starting point. I wonder
what others' experiences are with it?

Larissa Neumann
Technical Writer
DSC Ltd.

-----Original Message-----
From: jowen2 -at- CSC -dot- COM [mailto:jowen2 -at- CSC -dot- COM]
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 1999 9:43 AM
Subject: Project Estimates


Does anyone out there have a good tool for estimating time/resources
required for a large documentation project?  I'm looking at JoAnn Hackos'
book on Managing Your Documentation Projects, but the Dependencies
worksheet in there seems to be for completely new doc rather than updates
to existing.  I'll also be converting from Word to Framemaker (to put in
another twist).

Thanking you in advance for any help you can give.

-Joy Owen
Computer Sciences Corporation


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