cubedemon6073 wrote:
Quote:
I am terrible with this too. My son always wants to know how long things will take and I do not know.
Ideally you would map out most types of issues customers would have ie. "My screen is frozen.." Then figure out, based on the complaint, all the different possible causes. You could tell the customer that the most likely cause is x, if that is so it will take y time but if it is z cause it would take w time. Then add in an extra 10% of time in case. You would not list every possible cause just the most likely one and the one that would take the longest to fix and/or be the most expensive.
Time estimates are easier for things you have already done, obviously.
Even for the things I've already done I still have major problems giving a time estimate? How does one obtain this estimate for things already done? Is there a formula used? Am I supposed to consciously notate a start and end time? As far as I know most people don't notate a start and end time. If they do not, then what are their methods?
Ye,s keep a log of how long it takes you. People who bill by the hour have to do this to know what to charge. If you charge a flat fee, how can you make sure that you will be compensated fairly for your time, if you do not have an idea of how long it will take you? So, either way, you should keep track. If you charge $50 for something and it ended up taking you 10 hours that would only be $5/hour. It is good business sense to be able to estimate.
In bigger companies, project managers keep track of that, but they still have to base it on what the other people say a job ought to take.
Often large companies require time tracking even when they don't bill out to clients, because there are many accounting and tax reasons to do so. My husband thought he was finally out of time tracking only to find out his employer needed him to track by project for R&D credits. Basically, yeah, people DO this lol.
(and we are so off topic - HUGE apologies to the OP! should we request a split?)
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11 Jul 2014, 7:31 pm
