How many hours do you estimate it will take a competent person to install this?

I'm quoting hours for an installation job for this company I do consulting for. They want to set up a search engine on one of the website using the following software:

http://www.xtreeme.com/search-engine-stu...

Their server runs on IIS. I need to install this and set it up on their website. I've done work like this before and think i can do this fairly quickly. But just to be safe, what would be the typical amount of hours a person needs to set this up on a website?

Best guess estimate gets best answer.

I agree, that doesn't look like it'd take too much time. But its often that one step that doesn't work or that one special consideration that makes installations a killer.

I bet it'll take under 2 hours to install.. if that link is right I'd actually guess it may be under an hour, but part of the install time may be taken up by the fact the computer is generating indices, which I will blindly guess may will take at least an hour. I don't know how you'd want to factor that into your quote, you wouldn't be acting as anything better than a watch dog at this point. I know some index generation could take much longer (I've generated search indices before that required maybe even as much as eight hours of computer ... but that was back in the day of the first Pentium, too.) Obviously, it depends on the number of documents indexed. If it takes 4 hours to generate indices, you probably don't need to be there those whole 4 hours, and thus can discount your quote if you're able to leave and do another job or something.


If you think the risk of it being longer is low, I'd only quote maybe 1.25 of your best guess at most. This also depends on how good you've been at guessing. They may still want some extra configuration for the search engine or you to test the server after wards, so even if your estimate for your install time is 100% perfect, you have to estimate the chances of them wanting something else in addition to what you just installed. If you're not a good guesser, a 2X est. quote is probably not bad. I hate to guess anything more than 2X for anything because that just means my original estimation is really bad! But if there's a significant risk you may have to call tech support for this product or search the web to see why its not installing, maybe even 4X is not a bad estimate (and it still may be an underestimate!) Factor in how much modifications you may have to do as well.

Obviously, I'm not advocating charging for non-work, but in the computer world its quite easy to drastically underestimate the necessary work time needed.

Always bill for three hours. It will take less than 45 mins.

It will take 5 times your best estimate on how fast you can do it. Only because you will:
1) Have to explain it before they buy into the idea so you must recoup that time.
2) Your original estimate gave you no time for things like breathing.
3) They will ask you endless questions after they pay you and expect it was all part of the job.
4) You still have to recover the losses of a job gone bad in the past.

Shoo Wee! It's tough working on a fixed price, but in the end you make more than by the hour.