ESTIMATES

Minimum time for development

There is no set minimum, although any estimate for items such as bug fixes may be imprecise and should be based on an informal discussions involving the 'parties' concerned with the work, to obtain a commonsense agreement (time for discussion is to be included in the estimate!).

Estimates for development cover the activities below and mean that a simple task may be estimated at 3 hours. However, if that task is achieved in 10 minutes then it would be expected that the time sheet entry would be recorded as 0.25 hours (effectively the minimum time) and billed accordingly.

Estimated development times should include an allowance for:

• Time for the requirement to be communicated
• Time for the developer to identify the screens, programs or other elements concerned
• Creation of an upgrade
• Time to make the changes
• Unit testing
• Building the upgrade and changing the upgrade status
• Code review
• Downloading the upgrade
• Recording of time taken

After reviewing the problem, the developer may determine that the initial estimate is inaccurate, and either under or over estimated. This may occur if unexpected problems (or lack thereof) are encountered during development. In either case the estimate must be amended. In the event that the business analyst questions the developers revised estimate, the matter may be referred to Ilyas Rehman or David Harrison for resolution. The developer needs to inform the analyst of any change promptly.

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