a $10000 design budget for a web-app is nothing out of the ordinary.
(Full Story: “How much does a website cost?”)
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Hofstadter’s law
March 1, 2011 
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Hofstadter’s Law was a part of Douglas Hofstadter’s 1979 book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. The law is a statement regarding the difficulty of accurately estimating the time it will take to complete tasks of any substantial complexity. It is often cited amongst programmers, especially in discussions of techniques to improve productivity, such as The Mythical Man-Month or extreme programming. The recursive nature of the law is a reflection of the uncertainty of amounted time.
(Full Story: Hofstadter’s law)
A Review of Studies on Expert Estimation of Software Development Effort
August 1, 2009 0 Comments
1) Evaluate estimation accuracy, but avoid high evaluation pressure, 2) Avoid conflicting estimation goals, 3) Ask the estimators to justify and criticize their estimates, 4) Avoid irrelevant and unreliable estimation information, 5) Use documented data from previous development tasks, 6) Find estimation experts with relevant domain background and good estimation records, 7) Estimate top-down and bottom-up, independently of each other, 8) Use estimation checklists, 9) Combine estimates from different experts and estimation strategies, 10) Assess the uncertainty of the estimate, 11) Provide feedback on estimation accuracy and development task relations, and, 12) Provide estimation training opportunities. We found supporting evidence for all twelve estimation principles, and provide suggestions on how to implement them in software organizations.
(Link: A Review of Studies on Expert Estimation of Software Development Effort)
Estimating time for Web Projects more accurately: Part 1
June 29, 2009 0 Comments
the following facts are true when it comes to estimating web projects:
* It’s hard work and takes you outside your comfort zone
* Forces you to predict the future
* Usually has to be completed alongside your plans for your already fully booked week
* Makes you largely responsible for the:
o Sales success
o Solution offered
o Eventual profitability of the project
o Growth/survival of your business
(Link: Estimating time for Web Projects more accurately: Part 1)
Guide to Completing Projects On-Time
April 23, 2009 0 Comments
7. Give Deadlines to Your Clients
In order to keep things moving forward, deadlines should also be given to clients for getting their part done.
Simply asking the client for something in an open-ended nature with no deadline will not always work. While you’re waiting you may be losing valuable time. Giving deadlines to the client can obviously help to get things moving quickly, but it also helps them to realize some of the ways that they impact your ability to meet the deadline.
(Link: Guide to Completing Projects On-Time)
How To Estimate Time For A Project
April 14, 2009 0 Comments
The more time estimates you do, the more accurate you will be. As you create your own formula, some other factors you may want to consider include:
* Project management time
* Time to review work of subcontractors
* Holidays or days off that occur during the project
* Client turnaround time
* Debugging
(Link: How To Estimate Time For A Project)
