Effort Estimation
17 Dec 2024Effort Estimation
Effort Estimation
As an extra credit opportunity, we were tasked to have estimations on how long it took us to do our tasks for our final project for the ICS 314 course. Included was an estimation on how long we thought our issue would take, an estimation on how long it actually took, and non-coding estimation time.
How did I make my estimates?
Most of the time, I would make my estimates based on how difficult an issue was. For example, when I added a search bar for issue 33, I estimated that it would take me 45 minutes to implement it because all I needed to do was create a bar for users to do their searching on, find a proper icon, and make the search bar actually work by finding clubs in our database. Something else I needed to consider was any “non-coding effort”, which is any effort spent on the issue but wasn’t coding related. For example, for issue 65, I needed to add 15 clubs, but to do that, I needed to see the RIO list provided by UH Manoa on a Google Spreadsheet. I estimated an amount of time for non-coding efforts because these efforts would be helping me with completing my issues.
Benefits of Effort Estimation
Even though some of my estimations were a little off, I still think making effort estimations has benefits. I think one way it has benefited me is by allowing me to see my progress. By tracking how long it took me to do an issue versus how long I thought it’d take, it can help me see where I need improvement on. It also benefits me by helping me learn how I can better plan for future issues or projects.
Benefits of Actual Effort Time
By observing the actual time it took for me to finish an issue, it benefited me by allowing me to compare my actual vs. estimated time so I can improve future estimates. Like the effort estimations, I think it can also help me understand where I need to improve on and how I can better improve my time in the future.
Tracking Actual Effort
Before we started the project, my group and I started a group chat on Discord for communication. We made channels on the Discord group chat for each member to note down their times for each issue. After I finished my issues, I would immediately write down the amount of time it took for me to complete, along with which issue I’m tracking time for so I don’t get confused. For some of my issues, I had to add more time than what I originally wrote because some of my issues were noted down more than once. This is probably because I revisited my issue at some point to make an adjustment. For any times that weren’t noted previously, I made my estimates based on how long I remember spent time on some of them.