Estimation Technique for ABAP programmimng

[Former Member]

Hi,

I would like to know if there are any formal software estimation techniques that may be used for ABAP development.The commonly used estimation techniques such as Function Point/LOC etc do not seem to fit in.We currently use WBS methodology but here again it is left to the discretion of the developer to estimate for the lower level tasks .

Any suggestions on a technique that would best suite the vast style of programming varying from reports to module pools/ sapscripts/bdc/user exits etc etc...

Regards

Rani

[vinay_v]

Hi rani,

Currently there are not any tools for estimating the ABAP code.In case you come across any new technique do let us know.

There was a project and in that we too used WBS for estimation.

thanks

Vinay

[Former Member]

The only problem I find with WBS is that it becomes dependant on the experience of the developer involved and more of a gut feeling based estimation.

And based on WBS how would you compute the productivity if required.

Regards

Rani

[h_senden2]

Every estimation technique should depend on the experience of the developer (3 estimations : slow / medium / fast developer).

We are having now a little project to develop/set up a estimation tool, but the most difficult part is that the development time depends on the experience of the abapper.

What is the best way to handle this issue ? My customer want to create a bonus system based on estimated time / real development time with a deviation of +/- 10 procent.

regards,

Hans

[h_senden2]

By the way, what is WBS ? And where can i find more information about this technique ?

Hans

[ssimsekler]

Hi to all

The may be 3rd party products for that. Here is one to take a look. I do not know how successful they are but seems they handled somethings.

http://www.abovesoft.com/

*--Serdar

[Former Member]

Thanks Serdar for the link . I will take a look at it.

In the recent past I have faced several instances where I have had to give estimates to the clients for ABAP development. Though we use WBS (Work Breakdown structure), but that also is gut feel based and based on the experience of the developer involved.I discussed this with several friends in the SAP world but no one had a real answer.

I tried using FPA which is a more unversally acceptable estimation technique.

The main problem I run into when trying to do some kind of estimation for ABAP development using FPA technique is:

1. There is no logical data model available in SAP

2. As a developer building custom programs, there is already so much code/functions available , the varying levels of reuse makes it difficult to estimate

3. Several program such as for BDC the code gets automatically generated and then we adapt this code further based on the requirements, so again estimation becomes difficult.

I would request some one from SAP to respond on how they do estimation & what technique do they use :

1) for new modules & functionalities that they build

2) for enhancement/bug fixes that they do to existing applications

Rather I would like to use the SDN forum as a means to formulate an estimation technique suitable for ABAP devlopment.

Hoping to receive some wonderful suggestion from all the brilliant people out there.

Cheers

Rani

[nablan_umar]

It is very difficult to estimate without knowing the requirements first.

[Former Member]

hi to all,

First of all you should understand the reqirement (i.e technically and functionally) then you can estimate the time