Here’s the fundamental question. When will the client think they’re done? If they think they’ll be done by June, then you put an Agile team in place. That’s 4-6 people for 6 months. That’s the budget. Essentially, you do the multiplication for them. team * rate * 6 months. If they think they’ll be mostly … Read more
An exponential moving average is great for this. It provides a way to smooth your average so that each time you add a new sample the older samples become decreasingly important to the overall average. They are still considered, but their importance drops off exponentially–hence the name. And since it’s a “moving” average, you only … Read more
Hofstadter’s Law: Any computing project will take twice as long as you think it will — even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
The best answer you can give is to ask for time to knock up a quick prototype to allow you to give a more accurate estimate. Without some experience with a tool or a problem, any estimate you give is essentially meaningless. As an aside, there is very rarely a problem with giving too long … Read more