August 1995
Beginner
336 pages
6h 4m
English
book
Mythical Man-Month, The: Essays on Software Engineering, Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
by Frederick P. Brooks
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Chapter 8. Calling the Shot
Practice is the best of all instructors.—PUBLILIUSExperience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.—POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC
How long will a system programming job take? How much effort will be required? How does one estimate?
I have earlier suggested ratios that seem to apply to planning time, coding, component test, and system test. First, one must say that one does not estimate the entire task by estimating the coding portion only and then applying the ratios. The coding is only one-sixth or so of the problem, and errors in its estimate or in the ratios could lead to ridiculous results.
Second, one ...