Comments on: How Big Are Your Buffers? http://blog.brodzinski.com/2008/12/how-big-are-your-buffers.html Dealing with software projects in real life Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:07:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Pawel Brodzinski http://blog.brodzinski.com/2008/12/how-big-are-your-buffers.html#comment-2063 Pawel Brodzinski Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:32:00 +0000 http://blog.brodzinski.com/2008/12/how-big-are-your-buffers.html#comment-2063 Depending on situation we use anything between -50% (yes, a negative buffer) to 100%. A negative buffer is when a salesperson come and say:<br/>- Hey, they won't buy it with that schedule.<br/>We answer:<br/>- Hey, we won't deliver much faster.<br/>- What can we do?<br/>- You know, we can cut the schedule but it won't make us deliver faster. Then you and I will have to go to the customer and tell qhy we're late.<br/>- That's a good plan. Do it.<br/><br/>For pure development tasks we use usually something between 20% and 30%. It can be modified (increased) by factors of "freshness" of a developer, poor track record in estimating, a high number of expected interruptions etc.<br/><br/>Sometimes we use rough scheduling technique when we use 100% buffer but we include testing and implementation in buffer. This we do usually for standard tasks which we don't expect much uncertainty in (change requests etc). Depending on situation we use anything between -50% (yes, a negative buffer) to 100%. A negative buffer is when a salesperson come and say:
- Hey, they won’t buy it with that schedule.
We answer:
- Hey, we won’t deliver much faster.
- What can we do?
- You know, we can cut the schedule but it won’t make us deliver faster. Then you and I will have to go to the customer and tell qhy we’re late.
- That’s a good plan. Do it.

For pure development tasks we use usually something between 20% and 30%. It can be modified (increased) by factors of “freshness” of a developer, poor track record in estimating, a high number of expected interruptions etc.

Sometimes we use rough scheduling technique when we use 100% buffer but we include testing and implementation in buffer. This we do usually for standard tasks which we don’t expect much uncertainty in (change requests etc).

]]> By: yatsevsky http://blog.brodzinski.com/2008/12/how-big-are-your-buffers.html#comment-2062 yatsevsky Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:03:00 +0000 http://blog.brodzinski.com/2008/12/how-big-are-your-buffers.html#comment-2062 Usually we make laughs over multiplying developers estimate on "pi" number and in a more rare cases, on "e". =))) But usually buffer is 25-30%. What's yours? Usually we make laughs over multiplying developers estimate on “pi” number and in a more rare cases, on “e”. =))) But usually buffer is 25-30%. What’s yours?

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