April 2015 – Kurt Kovit

21Apr 2015 by Kovit 1 Comment

Timesheets

Operations

I spend around 10 minutes a day entering my timesheets and you can't but wonder if this time could be spent any better. Based on what I have described in my previous post about MVP and the way business value relates to time and money, we can calculate how much time we should be spending on this. The value gained in timesheets is mostly data which can in turn can be used to: Help determine if the project is still on target to reach its deadlines and make sure it’s delivered within budget. If you are on a time and material basis, your timesheets will probably be used for billing. If you are working on a product, timesheets help to determine the expenses involved to create the solution. Compare how efficient…

Minimal Viable Product

Estimation

Here is something you don't hear that often: estimation is hard! It’s so hard that people almost never get this right, and probably they shouldn't because after all it’s an estimate: “An approximate calculation or judgement of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something.” I have a suspicion that estimation is hard for most trades not just for software development, because people are generally quite reluctant to give you an estimate. So generally people tend to either: Overestimate and risk losing the job to someone else OR Under estimate and risk working after office hours to catch up This of course is inconvenient for everyone and tends to create a bitter relationship between the two parties. Is there another way? Yes .. avoid estimating. First of all let me…

It doesn’t take 9 mothers 1 month to make a baby

Large Teams

First of all this post has nothing to do with babies. It is actually about an interesting phenomenon that affects house builders, software developers, the government and possibly all types of jobs. Without adding too much hype it's about Brooks' law, so those of you familiar with it can move on to the next post. Let's say you are a contractor and you currently employ 2 builders. Assuming the 2 builders work 40 hour weeks, you estimate that a house will be finished in 4 months' time. However for some reason the client isn't happy about this and would like the house to be built-in 2 months. In this case the contractor would employ another 2 builders thus doubling the productivity and finishing the house on time. If half way through…