DEVELOPMENT SERVER
Rules to Better Work Items ( AKA Project Management )

Release contain two main classes of work: work items relating to the particular release (e.g. Create Customers.aspx) and work relating to all releases (e.g. management, administration, testing, software audit etc).

Project specific work items many only make up between 25% and 50% of the total project time. Project Managers and developers should not think that the only work being charged on a project are coding tasks.

General Project Costs
Management costs can change depending on how much management the client requires. SSW will recommend a suitable level of management. 'Management', or to put it another way: 'accountability and transparency' has a cost.

At SSW we add general project costs as a % of the work items generally in line with the following:

• Further specification: 20%
• Unit tests: 20%
• Testing: 10-20%
• Fixes from testing: 10-20%
• Software Audit: 4 hours per Release - usually conducted by two experienced architects
• Fixes from the Software Audit: 5%
• Project Administration: 5% - this includes items like stand up meetings, timesheets, standard updates
• Project Management: at least 1 day per week per resource on the project (e.g. two developers full time requires a PM two days per week) UNLESS the client provides a full time Project Manager and takes full responsibility for all resources
• Unknowns: 10%. While this is arbitrary it raises awareness for everybody that 'there are things we still don't know!'

Project Specific Costs

At SSW, estimates for a project will be done by a developer, checked by another developer, and finally triple checked by a project manager. While every project is different in some way, there are common elements. SSW has built an estimates calculator to assist in creating estimates.

See the SSW Menu Estimates Calculator (NOTE: this is an Excel template file.  Save the File ("Save as" don't "Open" it) and then open the file in Windows Explorer!)

If the client requires a fixed price quotation a 20% premium is added to the estimates for the releases specified in the Specification Release only (i.e. a fixed price is not given on the entire project). Requests for variations to a fixed price contract must wait until the contract is completed. If development is based on a fixed price contract work is completed offsite only to facilitate project management and prevent unauthorized scope development.

Note: It would be great if TFS Web Access had functionality “Add Standard Items to a Iteration (aka Sprint, Release etc.)”