Date:         Mon, 28 Feb 2005 12:25:16 -0500
Reply-To:     Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Sigurd Hermansen <HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Managing a Data Group Department
Comments: To: ben.powell@cla.co.uk
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Ben:
Yes, the 'Mythical Man Month' is both divisible and additive, and
directly related to results. None of those conditions holds in practice.
In fact, I have seen situations where adding programmers to a team has a
negative impact.
Sig

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Powell [mailto:Ben.powell@cla.co.uk]
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 12:05 PM
To: Sigurd Hermansen; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: RE: Re: Managing a Data Group Department


Sig,

The study behind the title was pretty clear too. You can't just throw
bodies at it, because at some point diminishing returns of communication
will set in, such that the administration of the project becomes the
overriding overhead.

Re: your example, e.g. if one man builds the prototype in x months, you
will likely not want to put 9 people on the final build for x/9 months,
rather team y on it for (x+b)/y months .... Where evaluating b and y is
the fun part,

Ben.

-----Original Message-----
From: Sigurd Hermansen [mailto:HERMANS1@WESTAT.com]
Sent: 28 February 2005 16:45
To: ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: RE: Re: Managing a Data Group Department


Ben:
Great suggestion ..... Particularly the part about how it takes 9 times
the effort to bring a prototype system into a full production
implementation. Sig

-----Original Message-----
From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
ben.powell@CLA.CO.UK
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 10:53 AM
To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Managing a Data Group Department


And read the Mythical Man Month:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201835959/qid=1109605902/ref=s
r_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-6597093-1913206

On Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:17:37 -0500, Sigurd Hermansen
<HERMANS1@WESTAT.COM>
wrote:

>Robert:
>I have used Milestones for tracking projected and actual schedules for
>programming projects. The appropriate technology for the task depends
>heavily on whether you are tracking four persons working relatively
>independently, or you are trying to control and track work of several
>programmers on the same system development task. For the latter, you
>may need to use a version control program (such as SourceSafe) as well
>as something like MS Project to coordinate schedules.
>
>Of course the hard part is matching internal and external client
>expectations, estimates of delivery dates, and scope creep ..... In
>your estimates, don't forget to build in time for programmer testing,
>review of test results, and at least two rounds of acceptance testing
>by clients. Also, always separate modified requirements from
>corrections of errors and track the req mods. Sig
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>robert simmonds
>Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 11:26 AM
>To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Managing a Data Group Department
>
>
>I am currently running a 4 person department and need a method to track

>all incoming SAS program requests from start to finish for job loading
>and costing purposes. I was thinking of using Microsoft Project but if
>anyone has another method please let me know.