How do you estimate Admin time on a project?

[dave]

Inquiring minds want to know :)

[Shihan Jedi]

damn dave, what a good idea...

i used Kfauver's method with a few modifications per my supervisor.

All of this is dependent on the number of designers using the software during the project. So I needed the number of designers and the duration of the project. In this example, there are 8 pipers working 41 weeks. In the Struct dept. there is 1 designer working for 7 weeks.

piping:

1. Estimated hours to generate each spec. (10 total) 16hrs each x 10= 160hrs total (this number came from a BENTLEY REP!)

2. Estimated hours to maintain/modify each spec. 32-40 hrs for modify time total. (20-25% of the spec build total)

3. Estimated hours per week to manage files on server, maintain 2D platform, assist designers/drafters. Using 8 designers yields an estimate of 328 hrs in 41 weeks
(1 hrs per designer per week on 2D)
If using 3D, then use 2 hrs per week per designer on 3D 2x8=16x41= 656hrs)

4. Estimated time to set up project. 6-8hrs one time only (includes building project, assigning names and passwords to users, customizing the iso, testing admin models)

5. Estimate on time to do daily backups of the project for the estimated life of the project.
1hr per day x 5 days = 5hrs x 41 weeks= 205


CIVIL/STRUCTURAL DEPT.

1. Estimated hours to build project users for Structural. 1 hour total

2. Estimated hours per week to manage files on server, maintain 3D platform, assist designers/drafters. Using 1 designers yields an estimate of 10 hrs in 7 weeks (just an hour per designer per week, rounded off to nearest 10)

buddy

[dave]

Wish I knew more about how we do it here but that info is above my paygrade. I can tell you a little bit about the structure of our department though.

I work in the CAE department of my company with roughly 25,000 employees. We are a global department meaning that we globally support projects in all offices worldwide and are not limited to one office or one project. We have roughly 48 CAE admins in the CAE department all of whom are billable to whichever respective project they are working on. If one office is slow they will help pick up the slack for other offices that might be overloaded. Our managers are superb and keep us employed, valued, and in the black as far as upper management is concerned. So bottom line is that there are 48 of us charging to projects 2080 hours a year.