I am a director of a UK based company which publishes psychological
tests, some of which are computer administered and scored.

Our Visual Basic Windows scoring software is 85% completed.
Unfortunately the programmer who did the work cannot continue and we
need to find someone to complete the project on a contract basis.  At
most there is three weeks of work.  The current software is reasonably
well documented and the programmer is available to assist with the
handover.

We also have other projects which have not yet been started.

I live in Ealing, West London, and our offices are in
Henley-on-Thames.  Ideally the person we work with should be within 45
minutes driving distance.

Please e-mail me if you are interested and we can arrange to speak or
meet.

I am not used to Usenet posting.  I have cross-posted to those groups
which appear relevant.  I apologise if I have inadvertently posted to
a group which does not welcome this type of message.

Regards

Richard Alberg

I wonder what the original programmer discovered to make
him pull out with the project "85%" complete????

--
Richard Clarke

                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Stephen Meredith's first rule of project management: 'Always remember
the 80/20 rule (85/15 ?) it takes 20 percent of the time to complete
80 percent of the project, the other 20 percent _never_ gets done'.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Meredith                          

Computer Centre           /      \  Telephone : +61 77 815913
James Cook University     \_.--._/  
Townsville                      v
Queensland 4811  AUSTRALIA
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ride: BMW R65        Drive: BMW 525      Fly: Cessna 152/172/182
----------------------------------------------------------------------

You're a bit behind the times Steven, the advent of high-performance
RAD/JAD/BAD/?AD tools such as VB / Delphi mean that these days its
only the last 15% that doesn't get done ;-)

We use a different formula:
The programmers calculated time needed *Pi (3.14) =>Total development
time... There is some truth within that....

REALITY!!!

Jimi

--

                                             \|/
                                            (*.*)
*---------------------------------------oOO--(=)--OOo-----*
|  James B Tollan                                         |
|  London, United Kingdom                                 |
|                                                         |
|        O tongue, thou art a treasure without end.       |
|                                                         |
|             And, O tongue, thou art also                |
|               a disease without remedy.                 |
|                == Jelal'uddin Rumi ==                   |
*---------------------------------------------------------*

THe forgoing was a joke fellas - STOP SENDING *ME* YOUR RESUMES
IF YOU WANT TO WORK IN ENGLAND FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE - I'M IN AUSTRALIA !

See _new_ posting 'IT WAS A JOKE'.

Yes -- and it doesn't get done MUCH QUICKER than it used to not get
done, too!

Rick

 ...snipp...
  >>>>Our Visual Basic Windows scoring software is 85% completed.
  >>>                                              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  >>>Stephen Meredith's first rule of project management: 'Always
  >>>remember the 80/20 rule (85/15 ?) it takes 20 percent of the time
  >>>to complete 80 percent of the project, the other 20 percent
  >>>_never_ gets done'.
  >>
  >>You're a bit behind the times Steven, the advent of
  >>high-performance RAD/JAD/BAD/?AD tools such as VB / Delphi mean
  >>that these days its only the last 15% that doesn't get done ;-)
  >>
  >
  >We use a different formula:
  >The programmers calculated time needed *Pi (3.14) =>Total
  >development time... There is some truth within that....

I knew another formula ( from IBM???), trying to translate it to english:

Take the programmers first estimated time, multiplay it by 2 and convert  
it to the next higher dimension.

e.g.  programmer: 3 days -> 6 days -> 6 weeks !
or    programmer: just a minuit -> 2 minuits -> 2 hours

Rule: Nothing is as simple as it looks at the first glance!

I'm programming now for more than 25 years, and several times managed to  
proove the above calculation ;-((. However since more than 10 years I use  
FORTH. By programming in FORTH I can better fight against this formula and  
reach the goals mainly in the 1st estimate, some-(times by 2) and never  
reached the next higher dimension :-)

For user shells in loosely coupled systems, I prefer VisBas (VB3) under  
windoze, but the real time stuff is written in FORTH.

There are always strange people doing strange things. Watch them!
( Space Shuttles Telescop payload experiment, ASSYST, searching of the  
TITANIC, Open Boot, RTX2000, postscript, Federal Express handheld  
computers, IBM-CAD, ShaBOOM!, Rhiyad Airport, are examples for using  
FORTH, some of them are rewritten by FORTH teams after C and C++ -teams  
failed)

--

                              Fast Good ...pick any two of them
Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Allinger
Brander Weg 6                 Voice/FAX [+49] [0] 212 / 66 8 11

GERMANY
## CrossPoint v3.02 R ##

~I wonder what the original programmer discovered to make
~him pull out with the project "85%" complete????

He discovered that the project management style in the company is dangerous for
his health, creates dependance and may harm his children should he go on working
during his spouse's pregnancy.
"My ideas are too valuable not to be shared with somebody"
                                     Michael V. Chernenko

                                     (so far in) Montreal, PQ
                                     (so far in) Canada

Have you filled this position yet Richard? If not let me know.

Bye.

  Andy Armstrong                  WonderWorks
  Phone/fax: 01665 602868 Mobile: 0860 922719

Q: What's the IBM definition of a man-year?
A: 730 people trying to complete a project before lunchtime :)
--
The Net Effect (WorldWide) Ltd          +44 (0)1246 23 22 20
            PO Box 78 Chesterfield S43 1YZ England          

            http://www.demon.co.uk/the-net-effect/

Here's another one:
Ask the developer how long does he/she think it is going to take,
and, if if he/she is really good, multiply this estimate by 3,
else, multiply it by 5. That's how long it is going to take
to get it really done, shipped.

That was supposed to be mail. Sorry everyone.

  Andy Armstrong                  WonderWorks
  Phone/fax: 01665 602868 Mobile: 0860 922719

The one that has worked almost every time:

double the estimate and bump to the next unit of time

1 day = 2 weeks
2 weeks = 4 months

remember this next time someone gives you an estimate... i