TIME

Always in short supply but non-the-less vital to the successful project. Industry experts agree that 1 hour of planning at the BEGINNING of a project can save 3 hours to make a change at the END of a project. Changes become more difficult and time consuming as the project progresses.

Here are the major time allocations for a typical project;

1. Surveying for needs - What are the needs that are going to be filled by the application? An accurate and complete requirements list is vital. Prioritizing the list provides flexibility in case time or money becomes an issue.

2. Meeting with developers - Your vision of the application needs to be articulated and refined with the development team.

3. Application review - Application iterations need review time to access progress and suitability.

4. Installation & training - This is the payoff. Gaining staff acceptance of the application will depend in large part to their perception of its usefulness. Training will serve to highlight those advantages.

MONEY

This may be easier than it first appears. Every application consists of numerous components that work as a system. By breaking out and examining each component, budgeting becomes manageable.

The major components are;
1. The database structure - How many tables are there and how will they interact with each other?

2. Screens - One or more tables provide data for the screen, one or more queries organize and filter the data. Screen design will require the majority of the time.

3. Reports - Very similar to the screen except the output is to paper. Any report will still have tables and queries associated with it.

4. Custom code - This is the computer language the developer uses to make the program act in a specific way. An example of this would be executing automatic calculations.

How we budget for a project is by looking at each of the components for two things; complexity and number. The project may call for a few screens but of great complexity or a lot of screens of minimal complexity. By reviewing all the elements of the application a fair and accurate budget can be developed.