subject: How Long Should You Take To Develop Software? [print this page] Has it occurred to you that in most cases software developers are pressed for time and usually overshoot their deadlines? Clients get agitated because of these delays caused by the software companies. Birmingham may not be a big city but developers here understand the importance of meeting deadlines and this they manage through carefully estimating the project time estimation.
It is not very difficult to understand the mechanics of time estimation for developing software, just the way it is done by large software companies. Birmingham has many companies that do their estimations very accurately, as they have found the easiest way to do this. Here is how software companies in Birmingham do this:
Do all projects take equal time?
The answer to this question is simply No. The reason is that each software that is being developed has different requirements, starting from the very planning stage to its beta testing and handing over the source codes and maintaining it. This is why there cannot be a set period that can be kept as standard.
Can we set a yardstick for establishing required period?
Generally, the thumb rule for getting a time estimate is that a plan is chalked out and work is distributed to teams. Each team then estimates time that they require for completing each action. Based on previous experience and the skills of the team, the project manager can make a list of actions and how much time each action usually takes. This can work as a yardstick for estimating time for future projects.
Should there be a cushion period for the unforeseen?
No matter how big or small a project may be, you should always cater for the inevitable. According to Murphys Law what can go wrong will go wrong and software development is no exception. People will keep falling sick, grandmothers will keep dying, dogs will keep chewing the most brilliant ideas in the notebook and system will definitely crash, which will cause delays. Therefore, instead of looking for the stress pills, it is always better to cater for eventualities and add them in the time estimation.
Is there a way to reduce the timeframe?
In my experience, the best software companies in Birmingham plan their projects in a way that they complete the project before the deadline. This makes clients happy and the management at peace. However, if you want to reduce your time estimate there is only one way of doing that. Improve your skills through practice. With practice, you gain experience and find easier and shorter ways of doing things. This makes your codes cleaner and makes maintenance easy. If you see that you are taking more time in completing a simple action, chances are that you are getting rusty. You will have to pull out your old notes and refresh what you learnt earlier. Ideally, you should be able to reduce your time in developing a code by 20% within a year.
You must understand that there cannot be a hard and fast timeline or a set number of hours for developing any specific software. It all depends on the expertise of the developer and the nature of the project.
