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I have recently been asked about an estimate for documentation, but
they want to somehow base the estimate on the amount of development
(coding) time estimated. I am more used to (and more comfortable with)
estimating documentation effort based on screens, controls, fields,
pages, etc. However, I don't think any of those kinds of things have
been determined. Instead, I think they are coming up with the
requirements document that is defining required functionality. I think
the consulting team is then estimating development effort based on
functionality.
My gut instinct is to say that I can't give them a metric. Often I
find that the aspects that take a developer the most time (e.g.,
making database calls to determine existence of a record) take me the
least amount of time. Likewise, the aspects that take a developer the
least time (e.g., changing a field label) take me the most time.
Anyway, if any of you have any experience or suggestions with this
kind of estimating, I sure would appreciate any help.
Thanks
Susan Hamilton
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Susan Hamilton
shamilton -at- metasolv -dot- com
MetaSolv Software, Inc.
5560 Tennyson Parkway
Plano, TX 75024
(972) 403-8452 http://www.metasolv.com/
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