Jayson ReadProject ManagerEden Prairie, Mn, United States
We use a simple waterfall approach to our SDLC. When requirements are signed off, I refine the project costs based on estimates for construction and testing that are provided. However, I need to account for developer resource costs during integration testing as defects come up from the tester. What's a fair flat percentage I could use in determining the budgeted developer costs during this testing phase?
I'm thinking around 75% or 80% of developer resource costs based on what I've seen with recent projects. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice? Saving Changes...
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Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
I typically keep my developer load (10 - 12 man project size) constant through integration and test. Unless there is a very homgenous developer mix, it would be very difficult to decide which staff to let go when testing errors are coming in. Any way, I find the challenge is to determine the duration of integration and test rather than the resource levels.
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George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Jayson,
It very much depends on your resource utilization policies. If the developers are assigned to other projects and only have to perform fixes “on demand”, then it’s appropriate to use a percentage based on historical records. However, if the developers continue to be allocated to the project you have to absorb 100% of cost in your project.
I typically maintain dedicated resources, but only at 50-75% of staff load (e.g. from 10 developers I maintain 5-7 senior resources during testing). Exactly how many depends on my “gut feeling” of how things were during development – a.k.a. if it’s new technology or new area where the team had minimal expertise at project start I would keep more developers in hand. This level of retention typically does not waste too many resources (people waiting around) and potential “spikes” in defects can still be covered with some overtime.
Hope it helps,
