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Subject:Re: Estimating hours per page From:Jeremy Walters <JWALTERS -at- BUSTER -dot- SWIN -dot- EDU -dot- AU> Date:Mon, 6 Feb 1995 12:02:33 +1100
Win Day was interested in how to estimate the number of pages required to
write a page of text.
There are many formulae out there. I tend to estimate on the basis of 3 or 4
pages of new text in an 8-hour day. This includes pages taken up with screen
images, indexes and so on. Though a lot of the time I write a good many more
pages than this in a day, sometimes the going is a lot slower, so it averages
out.
I restrict the pages per day estimate to my writing. I never count the time
required for reviews because I have no control over this. Review time and
other delegated tasks I treat as a schedulling concern. (I allocate a nominal
amount of time to the reviewers, illustrators and photographers. I then
specify this as the assumption on which my estimate of elapsed project time
is based).
But pages per day is the easy part. What is more exacting about estimates is
finding out how many pages the document will include. I'm interested to know
how you worked out that the document will be 230 pages! This really depends
on the type of manual you're writing (see the User Guide vs Reference Guide
thread).