Re: Counting Lines of Code - was Job Accounting

This is the method we have used for over 25 years.  With appropriate
monitoring, you factor in expertise and it  can be quite accurate.

Once refined, we could then provide our customers fixed price projects
and our employees fixed pay per deliverable.

The benefit to the employee was never having to ask for a raise as their
skill level increased.  They would come closer to the senior level
estimated time.  BTW, a college/tech school grad after one year of OJT
took 3 times the estimated number of hours.  The historical actual vs
estimated time ratio also set hourly rates for "best effort" projects.

Appropriately used, the formula also covers design time and
documentation.

Having said all of that, it does NOT work in an experimental phase of
development or in chasing a rapidly changing OS or language.  I would
feel very comfortable using this in a OPM RPG model but not in JAVA as
it is rapidly changing.  For that, best guess based upon experience and
knowing the team players, along with lieing through your teeth about the
actual time is par for course.


HwaRangRon@aol.com wrote:
> 
> 
> I thought they used something called "Function point analysis". This 
>technique "weighs" programs based upon complexity, number of files, number of 
>functions provided by the program, etc. and comes up with a number that can be 
>used to determine how long it should take to  do any work.
>
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