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Project Scoping Experiences with SQL Server (and Databases in General)
(Send in your experiences here – be sure to include suggestions and experiences about what you did about the issue with internal and external clients)
Trace: "Yes – I run from those projects. The trend I have seen lately in the past 12 months is no due diligence or BA work. You give a quote for time and money. If you don’t make those you are stuck finishing the project on your dime. NOT Good! I push back on these if I think they have a worthy project, I ask for the due diligence time. If they don’t give it, like I said, I run."
James: "I am the team lead for a 4-man SQL Server DBA group at a very large private healthcare company. Over the last 2 years, our Project Management group has greatly increased their requests for DBA time estimates without being able to provide any details on the projects they want estimates for. An example (I only wish I was making this up):
PM: Hi Mr. DBA, we have a project review presentation tomorrow morning for Project X, and we need to know how much SQL DBA time will be involved over the next 2 years.
Me: OK. I have never heard of this project before. Can you give me any details?
PM: Yes. It collects data and reports on blah, blah, blah. We are evaluating 4 different vendors. Two use SQL Server, one Oracle and one mySQL We’ll pick one next week.
Me: So you might use SQL Server or you might not. OK, what else?
PM: That’s it. How many hours will you need to work the project?
Me: Well, how many installations will there be?
PM: I don’t know.
Me: OK. How many users are we estimating? Will they mainly be local or remote?
PM: I don’t know.
Me: Umm, OK. How large do we expect the database to be initially? What about over the next 2 years?
PM: I don’t know. Just tell me how many hours it will take.
Me: Does the app have to interface with any external systems?
PM: Yes. Oracle ERP, Meditech, the Teradata EDW and Cloverleaf middle-ware. I don’t know why you have to know these things now. I just need a time estimate so we know how much to budget.
Me: …<contemplating getting out of IT and becoming a janitor>… I can’t give you a good estimate without more information.
PM: OK, I’ll call your manager. You should be able to give me an estimate based on past projects…
Me: <thinking how calming it can be to sweep a floor>
The worst part, my boss and his bosses up the chain see nothing wrong with this way of doing things. I have told them straight up that we pull numbers for these requests right out of our…hats. They simply don’t care. The response I get is "make your best guess and give them an estimate." This behavior has almost become the standard over the last couple of years, on the rare occasions that I do get any kind of meaningful info up front I am ecstatic.
I do a bit of on-the-side consulting. So far I haven’t encountered anything like this in that environment. But if I ever do, I will walk away without a second thought. A potential client is perfectly free to try and screw me in a fixed-price, no info contract. I am perfectly free to give them the opportunity to do it to someone else instead. Life is too short to set yourself up for failure from the beginning."
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