Snipped from Louie's contribution on the Include Wierdness
- I have noticed that some programmers inflate their estimates by
10
times, just so they will look good finishing early. We have to
be accurate, without lying.
Speaking for myself, this is usually necessary because today's
applications are so complex that all the dependencies are impossible to
forecast.
It is not a question of lying - it is a question of trying to anticipate
the worst case.
The first estimate you give is the only one that "management" (your
customers) will ever remember. You can explain the changed
circumstances until you are blue in the face - it makes no difference.
The customer cannot see the issues. You are late in delivering.
A good example just occurred today.
Set up a control flag for particular function.
Easy enough - we already have a screen for these things - just add one
field
Should be about an hour. Tops. No big deal.
Add the field and test it.
SB+ spits it back at me with a "matrix out of range" error.
These are linked screens - we are on the fifth screen.
I smell a big problem.
I create a sixth screen and put the field on that additional screen.
Now I get a different (more informative) message. "Too many fields on
linked screens".
As I suspected - we have hit the limit of this arrangement. We are on an
old version.
Now I have to totally re-design this set of screens.
With Page forward and back keys
Don't forget the Inquiry mode - How do I make those use the same screen
defns?
Make sure it functions "exactly" as it did before - it does not want to
because the sub-screens are a different herd of cats.
Now, how much time should I have estimated for this task?
And this is not unusual.
Does anyone out there have any thoughts on THIS issue?
I think it (estimating timelines) is one of the more difficult tasks we
face. Especially when interfacing to an existing mature application.
Coding is the easy part of this job.
Cheers
JR
John Rodgers
Masonite International
Tel: (813) 2612396 ext 3036
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