How to Estimate with the Estimating Formula

If you want to estimate it helps having a formula.

Accurate estimating is a valuable skill. It's the answer to the question "How long will it take?"  If your boss, user or customer asks this question and you answer it incorrectly it could be a problem of

• Working overtime
• Not meeting expectations 
• Not being trusted
• Receiving a lower hourly rate for your work

If your boss asks for an estimate and you underestimate the work you may be working lots of overtime to meet your commitment. Had you had an accurate estimate you could tell him what that is and hopefully not work the overtime.

If you estimate time to build a website at 10 hours, $100/hour then you'll quote a price of $1,000. But what if your estimate is wrong and it takes 30 hours. It can be hard to charge the $3,000 you worked. Don't plan on getting repeat business. An accurate estimate would allow you to do better to come in on time with the site.

The formula for accurate estimating can be answered with the question of when will you finish this 300 page book? I use the book example, because once you understand it, estimate other things will be a matter of collecting the proper information and applying the formula.

Now if you read a page a minute it will take you 300 minutes or 5 hours (300/60) to complete the book. This is the actual time to read the book but not the elapsed time. If you read an hour a day it will take you 5 days to complete it. If you read 1/2 a day then 10 days to complete it. 

This brings us to the formula 

Estimated Completion Date = 

                                                                  pages to read 

        Today's Date  +       ---------------------------------------------------

                                       Pages per min  x  Time reading each day in minutes

So this is the basics of the Estimating Formula.  This formula will soon be implemented in Time-Creator.com, but it does help you with the variables of Pages/minute and Time reading each day.

You can download as spreadsheet to see this calculation in action.

If want job security, more customers, better employment reviews it does start with simple accurate estimating.

Random is Good or God

I was way into random before the iPod shuffle came along. Years back on my Atari 800 XL I built a program called Random Album Selection. This was a time before the CD or MP3 existed and everything was on vinyl.

Using Atari Basic, I wrote a program that allowed me to enter my albums and it would randomly select an album and side to play. I realized the benefit from this as I realized that Random is Good.

I would buy new albums and play them over and over again until it would sit with my other records never to listened to again. But after developing the program, I would be listening to albums that I wouldn't normally listen to and enjoying it very much. There was something to this random stuff.

Flash forward years later and I'm working on a version of Time-Creator.com. I start to think that if random is good for albums it's probably good for selecting what I should do. If you're in the habit of doing certain things and those things aren't getting you to where you want to be then Random Task Selection might be better than you selecting what to do.

I've built this feature into Time-Creator. You can filter on your "A" or top priority tasks and randomly select one to do. Now like the iPod shuffle, random task selection is good.  Matter a fact I like to think of it as asking God what to do. So Random is Good and Random is God.

You can download the latest version of Time-creator at my website.  Note it's an early alpha version a little buggy but very useful. You do need Excel 2007 or 2010 right now to use it.

Rock Climbing and Software Development

The other day I was working on a very complex project at work and had very tight deadlines. It was a bit overwhelming.  I started to think that software development is a little like rock climbing.

When you go rock climbing, you start up the rock pulling yourself up the mountain using your hands and feet. But as you move up you reach a point where you need to grab a rock to keep moving up but none appears to be available.

This is your first hurdle. This happens in software development when you get stuck on a problem with no apparent solution. When you're on the rock it can get scary. But if you don't panic and keep looking you'll find a place to put your foot or grab with your hand to continue up the mountain.

So with software development, stay with the problem keep looking. If you do you'll continue to make progress just like rock climbing.

The Benefits of Time Tracking

Time tracking is usually a dreaded task by the people who need to do it. Lawyers, accountants, software developers, professionals need to know what they spent their time on.

The reason it's disliked is that it's difficult to do until Time-Creator came along.

There are some subtle advantages to tracking your time:

• You can identify time wasters
• You can make better estimates if you know how long similar tasks take
• A program can check if you're doing the right tasks to help you achieve your goals
• You can better balance your time by knowing that you're spending too much if it on one project
• You can be warned if you're taking too long on a task

Now time tracking isn't that easy but Time-Creator has the following features to help you effortlessly track your time:

• Auto-tracking.- Track based on the Window you are using or Excel sheet you;re on
• Track from a button press - Track time based on pressing a button that performs a task (Button Bar)
• Track from an alarm - Track your time when an alarm pops up
• Track from your to do list - If the task is in your to do list or on any cell just press ctrl+T and you're tracking it.
• Time Adjustments

These are just a few of the benefits. Try the software at http://Time-Creator.com to see how time tracking can help you.

Should I build an Excel 2000/2003 version?

As I build Time-Creator, I'm wondering if I should make the software work on Excel 2000/2003. The first requirement is that you need a copy of the software and I have one on an old laptop.

The second is will there be enough customers that use this version to make it worthwhile?  I've started on making my program compatible but then realized it's taking away from my main focus.  I could always come back to it.

As I'm working on it I'm finding a number of compatibility issues with the VBA code I'm writing using Excel 2010.  The biggest ones are:

•  Ribbon isn't available in the previous versions
• Callbacks don't work 
• Sort command issues
• New bugs introduced by changing code to support Excel 2000

I've met my first goal to get out a version of Time-Creator that user's can download. My second goal is a bug free version and third is a version that's easier to use.  The Excel 2000/2003 version will have to wait unless I hear back from lots of users who want it.

Though, it's very tempting as I've spent around 5 hours already on this I may try to get out a version.

What version of Excel do you use? Should I build an Excel 2000 compatible version

Estimating Your Work

How important is estimating your work accurately? Very important. I've spent many a late night at work due to poor estimates. Most estimates fail because many things aren't taken into account when you make your estimate. Some common things are:

• Vacation time
• Holidays
• System Down Time
• Interruptions
• Production Support
• Emergency work
• Sick
• Co-worker on vacation
• Bugs
• Time testing
• Time documenting
• Time training
• Time hiring
• Training classes
• Hard to solve problems
• QA cycle
• Meetings
• Emails
• Co-workers needing help
• Experience of person doing the work
• Support for person doing work

When it comes down to it a lot can go wrong. So the first this is to make sure you don't leave out tasks on your plan. Also it helps to have a history of how long things take to better estimate how long new tasks will take.

In addition, if you miss deadlines you'll get a poor review and can even get fired. 

Estimating is important.

Some of the things that Time-Creator can do for you is:

• Easily track your time so you can know how long similar products have taken in the past
• Track how accurate your estimating is 
• Know percentage of time is spent dealing with non-work type issues
• Help you manage scope creep so that more functions aren't added while keeping the same deadline

Take a look at how Time-Creator can help you.

30 Second Ad - Part 2

Today I worked on the 30 second ad as it kept coming up on my to-do list. The text for the ad is:

If you're overwhelmed with too much to do, Kravatz Inc. has a new product called Time-creator. It's an Excel spreadsheet, that  helps you  reach goals, stay focused and deal with interruptions.

The software features a todo list, alarms and time tracking. This will enable you to get more done in less time.

There is no product on the market like this.

Go to our website at time-creator.com to view a demo or try the software.

We are limiting the number of free downloads we will allow,  so do it today After 9 takes here's what I came up with:

 One of the things I realize about doing this work is that you won't get it perfect and the Nike "Just Do It" slogan is very appropriate. It doesn't need to be perfect, but needs to get done. Perfection can come later.