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When i worked for a large, international bank (whose name rhymes with shitty), I always had to use the following formula to estimate projects.

1. Take estimate of actual work
2. Multiply by 2 to cover project manager status reports
3. Multiply by 4 to cover time spent in useless meetings.
4. Multiply by 2 to cover user support and bug fix tasks.
5. Multiply by 2 to cover my team lead tasks.
6. Multiply by 3 to cover useless paperwork and obtaining idiotic necessary approvals to do anything
7. Finally, multiply by 3.14159 to cover all the other stupid shit that the idiots that run that company come up with.

It's only a slight exaggeration. Tasks that required less than a day of actual coding would routinely require two weeks to accomplish and get implemented.

Comments
  • 9
    There is a jQuery plugin for this formula. It's called:

    var estimate = 3;
    $(estimate).bureaucracy();
  • 0
    I think that this is the norm. But I agree that it shouldn't be. Luckily you didn't big the job out in one chunk of $$$, right?
  • 1
    Been there done that. Moved to a web consulting agency. Now the tasks have to be done yesterday and pushed to production without proper testing. Mixed feelings, I tell you.
  • 0
    I work in a Bank and I get pissed by the time it takes to do things. It is insane!
  • 0
    Well, Frederick Brooks estimated system product 9 times longer than just a program that has similar functionality.
    There are really a lot behind programming where your program should be documented, when you need to integrate it with external systems and so on.
    If you make some program that you made up your self it will be just a program that you think should work. But most probably it will work as expected for no one except you.
  • 0
    Speaking on banks I worked for the InfoSec company. And there were no bank application that could pass penetration testing on the first version.
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