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Estimating projects is in and of itself an art. Some people can and some
cannot.
For example, my husband and I are remodeling the bathroom. We have done this
before, we know what is involved. However, for reasons I cannot explain, the
2 day project is taking 3 days. I am a little tense, he is a little tense. I
don't know why things are going very slowly, because I had to work today and
could not participate. He has no explanation and seems to be puzzled and
defensive. We are not in the middle of marital harmony at this moment. It
will pass, but things are a little tense. A tiny bit. You married people
know this feeling. Landmines.
Bathroom remodeling is a lot like tech writing and other projects because
one thing depends on another - many of these things are not in your control.
We have a client right now - some of you may recall they wanted 38 pages of
stuff laid out in 26 pages! - who, at hopefully the final review, are
changing the approved 4 weeks ago art and are reorganizing and making LOTS
of other changes (we have 4 reviews now).
I had the icky conversation today about "out of scope changes" and explained
how that works. It is a different, much higher, hourly than I would normally
charge, simply to stop these sorts of changes at this part of the project.
They fainted. I agreed this was costly. It is unfortunate that they really
want these changes but they are going to cost almost 10% of the total
project. They agreed, because they want those changes. I suggested that in
the future, they get the entire sign off team involved at the beginning of
the review process. They seemed puzzled and a little defensive.
They are VERY unhappy at the time they will take, because we are already
over schedule, in large part because of those 4 rounds of edits we were
never scheduled for. But there they are. It all takes time. And time costs
money.
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-71429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Andrew
Plato
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 5:52 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Estimating a Project
"Andrew Plato" wrote
> Mostly, there is strong emphasis on the individuals in a team to solve
> problems and
>
...finish sentences.
Sorry about that. I forgot what I was ranting about now.
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