How do you estimate the time and cost of a project?

The length of time it takes to complete a project depends on your requirements. The following can influence the time:

  • Core features
  • Designs, if required
  • Help with planning
  • Supporting documents such as user stories, wireframes or a site-map

Examples of how long a site can take:

  1. A simple CMS website with up to 5 pages, a blog and contact form takes about 3-4 weeks.
  2. A more complex project with 15 pages using Drupal as the CMS takes around 2 months. A site like this may feature editable slideshows, light boxes, user registration, profiles, an administration area, dashboard and additional device/browser support.

As there are so many factors involved time-scales differ from project to project, and client to client.

Please note the “time-frame” is different to the estimated days I charge for. I can spend 10 days on a project that takes 3 weeks to complete. I don't charge for “idle” days where I require your feedback before continuing my work.

In terms of estimating the cost I take a very pragmatic approach by working out all the tasks in detail and breaking them down by a days or hours of work. I add this up and apply my day rate.