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Re: standard time estimates for documentation projects
Subject:Re: standard time estimates for documentation projects From:"OTTO,KAREN (A-Spokane,ex1)" <karen_otto -at- agilent -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 10 Apr 2002 09:08:35 -0600
Don't forget to meet your users' needs. I've been through all kinds of
estimates, but the one that currently works best is to write up a task list
of the high level topics I will be writing or editing, then do rough
estimates for that work individually. Even though I know what order I need
to work in, I usually don't communicate that.
After that I give them a total that matches their wished-for delivery time.
No Gantt chart, no PERT chart, no real-time tracking.
I have found that if a team member/project leader wants more detail, they
usually want to micromanage. If they want less detail, the estimate doesn't
matter at all, as other parts of the project are likely to be far more
critical.
If you were looking for hard numbers, it takes me about
- 2 hours per page for easily leveraged content for manuals
- 4 hours pp for difficult leveraging (many changes, with rather complex
technical issues)
- 4 to 6 hours pp for new content with average quality of product definition
documents
- 2 hours per high level command for simple GPIB programming commands with
railroad diagrams (graphics)
- 3 days per page for an application note fom scratch
- 1 day per page for a new product brochure
- 3 days for a 1 page (front and back) job aid based on existing content
Coffee breaks and visits to the little engineer's room are included. Choking
the living daylights out of a team that adds or changes things at the last
minute is not included.
My customer base is engineers and technicians working on wireless products.
My SME base is a group of extra-sharp engineers who appreciate the value of
my work and write good Product Definition Documents. These factors help keep
the estimates low.
Karen Otto
karen_otto -at- agilent -dot- com
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