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by mrtbld
4619 days ago
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How to measure a project's progress? If time is your metric, then the last 20% should be done in 20% of the total time. (And that's right, when the OP says she was 80% done, she actually was 50% done.) If your metric is something else, what could it be? And perhaps it is not the best metric after all: a loading progress bar that goes quickly to 80% and then slows down (by a factor of 4) until the end may not be the best progress bar after all. I guess that the difficulty is to get a precise idea of the time you need to finish something. |
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To bring in yet another analogy, think of the project as a car being refurbished. The last 20% of work may not change much in terms of external chassis, but it is all about fine-tuning the engine, and the drivetrain. The client still sees the same car that you showed him at "80% done," except now the engine runs much better and the car purrs like a sexy, sexy kitten.
The problem, IMHO, is you can't give an accurate metric no matter how much you try.
If you give a liberal estimate and end up doing 80% of the product in 50% of the time, the client will expect you to finish the 20% in 12.5% of the original time-frame - the very 20 % that almost always takes about 80% of time. On the other hand, if you take 80% of the estimated time-frame to deliver 80% of the product, the remaining 20% will always trip you up because it almost always needs another 80% of time.
I've found that the best way to keep everyone happy is to finish 80% of the product in 50% of the time but show the client 50% of the product and spend the remaining 50% of time, finishing the 20%. It's a win-win, IMHO.