G
Guest
I am looking for a job estimatiion template for access
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L
Larry Linson
"Swansie" wrote
Unless you find the templates at the Microsoft web site... in Access 2003,
follow the Office Online link in the Help pane; in previous versions, visit
http://office.microsoft.com/... you aren't likely to find one. There's no
business model for really profiting from all the extra work required to
create a template, so anyone just trying to help usually creates a sample
database.
What kind of jobs are you estimating?
In the past, I worked on two different databases for estimating: one for
specialty construction and another for remodeling of commercial real estate.
Both are proprietary tools of the database owners and are not available for
sale.
In general, it is a matter of defining the smallest component "jobs" or
"tasks", and what it costs to do them, selecting how many of which kind are
involved, and reporting on the calculated total cost.
Manufacturing, construction, and remodeling tasks are far more predictable
than tasks in some other disciplines, as described below.
If you meant, a template for a database that estimates Access development, I
have not seen one. In fact, I have seen a number of attempts at creating an
"estimator" in my years in the computer business, none of them very
successful. Some _seemed_ very successful, because the test values with
which they were "seeded" were more than adequate for the tasks, and, no
surprise, a task that was "estimated" at 2 days, generally _took_ 2 days,
even if it could have been completed in 1 or 1 1/2 days, so those were
self-fulfilling prophecies. And, since they "worked so well", no one ever
thought about needing to change the values. But even when seeded with
realistic values, all they did was prove the point that the difference
between individuals outweighs most other factors, and they were not very
accurate, overall.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
I am looking for a job estimatiion template for access
Unless you find the templates at the Microsoft web site... in Access 2003,
follow the Office Online link in the Help pane; in previous versions, visit
http://office.microsoft.com/... you aren't likely to find one. There's no
business model for really profiting from all the extra work required to
create a template, so anyone just trying to help usually creates a sample
database.
What kind of jobs are you estimating?
In the past, I worked on two different databases for estimating: one for
specialty construction and another for remodeling of commercial real estate.
Both are proprietary tools of the database owners and are not available for
sale.
In general, it is a matter of defining the smallest component "jobs" or
"tasks", and what it costs to do them, selecting how many of which kind are
involved, and reporting on the calculated total cost.
Manufacturing, construction, and remodeling tasks are far more predictable
than tasks in some other disciplines, as described below.
If you meant, a template for a database that estimates Access development, I
have not seen one. In fact, I have seen a number of attempts at creating an
"estimator" in my years in the computer business, none of them very
successful. Some _seemed_ very successful, because the test values with
which they were "seeded" were more than adequate for the tasks, and, no
surprise, a task that was "estimated" at 2 days, generally _took_ 2 days,
even if it could have been completed in 1 or 1 1/2 days, so those were
self-fulfilling prophecies. And, since they "worked so well", no one ever
thought about needing to change the values. But even when seeded with
realistic values, all they did was prove the point that the difference
between individuals outweighs most other factors, and they were not very
accurate, overall.
Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP
J
John Vinson
I am looking for a job estimatiion template for access
You probably can't.
Job estimation for... home construction? network installation?
database design? corporate takeover planning?
These will all require different data models and different designs.
I'd suggest that you study up a bit on relational database design, and
apply your knowledge of YOUR business requirements (which you probably
know much better than anyone on this newsgroup) to design your own
database. Identify the Entities (real-life persons, things, or events)
which go into estimating a job; identify their Attributes (what you
need to know about each type of entity); identify their Relationships.
Build a table for each type of entity, with a field for each valid
attribute.
You don't really need a 'template' and my guess is that a template
would necessarily be too rough an approximation to your actual
requirements to be anything more than a big redesign job!
John W. Vinson[MVP]