Re: DDS Screens To Java

SCarter,

The old arguement is that if it is going to take you (6 years * 4 programmers)/2
(there will always be other "priorities" to do that takes away from this
project) = 12 man years at $60k per year ($50k plus labor burden) = $720k

This is what the tool makers will point out to you.  If you can reduce your
labor to 6 man years that saves $360k so a $100k tool plus $100k consulting
saves you $160k.  At this point your total cost is $560k.

Then they will throw in one more factor: user loss of productivity during the 6
years.  Potential savings lost.  So, depending on staff size and data volume
growth, if you can avoid hiring just two data entry clerks @ $30k/year after a
one year deployment avoids ($30k * 2) * 5 = $300k.  Now if you believe in voodoo
that means that what is currently a $720k project and 6 years in the making
turns into a $260k 18 month project. ;-}

A really, really good salesperson will point out that by the time you factor in
the increased revenues of having a competitive advantage, the tool doesn't cost
you a dime!

Yeah, that could happen! :)

Now, in the real world, spending 6 years playing catch up only means that you
will not be done by the time the next shift in processing occurs. Oh, I forgot
to mention, since this is a 6 year/4 person FT project, and since we all know
that deadlines make a neat sound as the whoosh by, it will take even longer that
you expect and cost more and more than likely never get completed.

IMHO, retrofitting RPGIII code (even RPGIII code run through CVTSRC) to run
under the new model makes about as much sense as the S/34 to S/38 migration aid
did 20 years ago.

J. Kilgore
Opinions given freely and worth every penny!

SCarter@rsrcorp.com wrote:

>
> How long did it take you to convert everything?
> We have about 900 display files and about 1600 programs and are expecting
> it to
> take about 6 years the manual route with 4 programmers working on it.
> We don't want to take that long so we were checking around with the big
> guys
> and most of them say about 9 months to a year, but management saw the price
> tags
> and wanted to know if we could go cheaper. I guess they did not take into
> account
> the time it would take would also be costly,much more so than paying for
> the tools.
> We are really looking to see if there was an quick/easy/cheap way to do
> this.
> If cheap is not an option we will probably be able to convince management
> just had
> to check.