How long will it take? • Riaz Arbi

I have a clearly defined problem that I think you can solve with your fancy data code skills. How long will it take? All the data is available inside a database but we just get emailed PDF reports every month from our vendor. How long will it take?

to get the raw data from the database: 1 day to 3 months
to clean the data: 1 week to 3 weeks
to write proof of concept code that looks like it probably works: 1 week
to create an impressive-looking html dashboard: 3 days
to actually prove to my self that it works: 1 week
to rewrite into properly structured code: 2 to 4 weeks
to write tests: 1 to 4 weeks [most of this time will be spent avoiding writing tests]
to automate: 2 days
to add just one tiny extra feature: 1 day to 4 weeks [thank goodness I wrote tests]
to figure out why it suddenly broke: 1 week [thank goodness I wrote tests]