Hi,
I wanted to ask services/consultancy companies/freelancers as to what process they follow to estimate the amount of work before quoting number of hours to their clients. This has long baffled me and I mostly estimate on best effort basis and market value. I would like to understand the processes companies/freelancers follow to do this and if there could be a empirical way to do this. Do you guys use time sheets to monitor your and your team's efficiency? Do you find the data in time sheet useful for future estimations?
Estimation is important part of services business, though done by product companies too but they have more liberty to be fully agile. For a services business thats how your client interaction essentially starts.
To cut short, would love to know what estimation/planning process do services/consultancy companies use. Personal experience in this matter is something I would love to hear. It would be great to hear about the whole process of estimation and planning from project managers who are happy with their processes and even otherwise :) Non drupal experience in this area is also appreciated.
If there is interest, then I can attach a very generic set of feature requirements which you can run your estimations on and record reasoning, let me know if someone wanna come up with more understanding of estimation via collaborative exercise of estimating against a common feature set. You can also contact me via the contact form.
Comments
Estimation
I do a best effort, with a percentage project management overhead. Then I propose that as fixed bid, so if I estimate too low it eats into my profits.
I use a timesheet application to track actual time per activity versus estimated, and do a post-mortem after the project in an attempt to see how close my estimates are to reality for future efforts.
There is downside here, namely that I occasionally drastically under-estimate, but my thinking is that it is much easier to get a fixed bid project through budget approval than an open-ended one.
Article from TopNotchThemes
Great and really useful article from TopNotchThemes http://www.topnotchthemes.com/handbook/planning-your-drupal-project
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How to contribute to Drupal.
Rate directory
Some Drupal service providers post their rate on the following site. Search under the column 'Rate'. http://www.mydrupal.com/drupal-services
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How to contribute to Drupal.
Article from Nick Lewis
Article from Nick Lewis http://www.nicklewis.org/node/731
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How to contribute to Drupal.
I guess it depends on the
I guess it depends on the client and how much you care about getting that project. If you think that " it is much easier to get a fixed bid project " and the project will lead to more better paid work then I say go for it. If you are in the position to say no to work because they wont accept your estimate then say no, hard, quality work hopefully leads to bigger and better things. I am new to the website game, but I worked in an advertising / sign business for 4 years and we took every job differently depending on the circumstances. Sometimes you have to even think about payment plans, but think carefully there :/ The hard thing about starting to record how much time you spend and pricing it so, is actually remembering to do it in your workflow :)
I am also interested in others thoughts on this topic :)
Esimate Template
You should check out the estimate template and guidelines at: http://dev-gen.civicactions.net/moin/Estimating
This tool allows you to estimate both individual items and overhead based on project duration.
Enjoy!
I beilve this link has moved to...
http://civicactions.com/estimating-worksheet
very useful...thanks!
Thanks for all this info. Me
Thanks for all this info. Me & my partner have been asked to put a bid in on a job, which will be our first bid.
My only experience is in the construction world. The very basics of that go:
Labor (# of workers * rate * estimated hours * 15% unexpected) + supplies ( estimated cost + 15% unexpected) + any overhead.
The number you get, you also multiply by 15% for the unexpected.
You do this in construction because there's always something... a wall you didn't realize needs replaced, unexpected demands from a homeowner, etc.
increase your "unexpected" %
Unless you have a very well-defined, well-scoped project -- which is very unlikely with a first job -- increase that 15% figure by a great deal. I would say to 50%, but that is probably very pessimistic. Your experience and mileage may vary. If nothing else, try validating your original quote/estimate through the CivicActions estimating worksheet, mentioned above. There are no shortcuts. (Which you know.)
contingency
I agree with fending. Contingency, the percentage you markup for unexpected, should be directly related to the clarity of scope, which will vary between projects.
Lullabot's Estimation techniques revealed!
Hello everyone,
I wrote the following article about Lullabot's estimation process. We also attach our estimation worksheet which is most helpful for bidding large enterprise-level projects.
http://www.lullabot.com/articles/art-estimation
Warm regards,
Seth
Seth Brown
Lullabot
970.618.5370