Planning IV: Resource and Schedule Estimating

Planning IV: Resource and Schedule Estimating

1. Resource Planning

   • The resource you plan is your own time.
   • You need to estimate the resources and make a schedule.
   • PRODUCTIVITY
     • Measured as the labor hours required to do a unit of work.

2. Estimating DevTime

   • First select the historical data to use.
     • A: Use data on estimated object LOC and total actual dev. hours.
     • B: Use estimated new and changed LOC and actual dev. hours.
     • C: Use data on estimated or actual new and changed LOC and actual hours.

3. Estimating Task Time

   • 1. Have clear requirements.
   • 2. Produce a simple process definition.
   • 3. Define at least size and resource measures.
   • 4. Have historial data.
   • 5. Have appropriate size-based resource estimates.
   • 6. Estimate max and min times the job will likely require.
   • 7. Determine the likely estimate range.
   • 8. Follow the PROBE method to produce the estimate and the prediction interval.

4. Combining Multiple Estimates

   • You add the variances.
   • Standard deviation is around the mean and not around whatever your estimate turns out to be,
   • You can overcome lack of data using multiple regression.

5. Schedule Estimating

   • Requires a detailed estimate of the hours needed to do the total job.
     • Allocate these hours to the various project phases.
     • Use historical %
   • DIRECT PROJECT TIME
     • Divide your week into your key activities.
     • PSP: Use the project plans.

6. Earned Value Tracking

   • EV tracking is a way to evaluate project progress.
   • It establishes a relative value for every task and credits that value when you complete the task.
   • The earned value credit is given only when the task is completed.

7. Estimating Accuracy

   • Accuracy: the degree to which the plan matches the actual result.
   • Even if several small estimates are seriously in error, their composite will likely be more accurate.
   • Over or underestimating?
     • For size estimates
       • You may not be using proper historical data
       • You're making too gross conceptual design..
     • For hours calculation
       • Examine the variation between seemingly very similar tasks.
   • When the regression parameters have problems, you should use simple LOC/h averages.

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