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Questions
SPECTRE - Questions and Answers

Relative Power
Programming Languages – Power, Pedigree and Purpose

SLOC
Early versions of SPECTRE were based on estimating Source Lines Of Code (SLOC). SLOC has since been shown to be an unreliable indicator and SPECTRE now uses a proprietary metric called Construction Points. Click here to find out more about SLOC

The Five-Minute Task Estimate
The next two items were written in 1998 by Tom Fine of Harvard. In my view his material deserves a wide audience and should be required reading for task estimators. Tom himself is clearly a talented, skilled, imaginative individual who inhabits the left-field of intellectual endeavour. I suggest you read the first piece, guess how long his five-minute task really took, and then read the second piece to see how close you were. If these pieces whet your appetite, you can find a variety of further examples of Tom’s ingenuity at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~fine/.

Click here for the Five-Minute Task Estimate

Click here for the Five-Minute Task Estimate Completed