We have a SQL bod in the office (managed resource) who was given a task that (IMO) seems to be fairly simple. I'm thinking half, maybe a days work for this task but working on this amongst other things for three months has produced a crappy thing that doesn't work. Before the bloke gets a hard time, can someone give me a very rough idea about how long you would expect someone to take, working full time, to produce a DB and queries that will:

• Import data from between 5 and 7 text file lists in a directory with a fixed naming structure (single column, nothing fancy), say list A, B, C etc.
• Compare each list against a "golden source" for that list in the DB and report exceptions. (so it says "LIST_A ITEM_6 is not in LIST_A_GOLDENSOURCE" etc)
• Compare each list against the other lists and report exceptions. ("LIST_A ITEM_6 is not in LIST_B, LIST_D or LIST_F" etc)

It's originally done in a multi tab spreadsheet with vlookups but SQL seemed a more sensible choice. Am I expecting too much...? Have I misinterpreted how simple this reconciliation of 5 lists is?

 

Whilst the keen eager beavers in IT will say "I can knock that up in 20 mins" I still think to produce a quality solution that is well tested would realistically be 2-3 days. Its not a complex solution but you need to create plenty of test cases.

 

Depending on how much experience this person has carrying out tasks of this kind, Id say a day is not unreasonable to do the work, depending on how the exceptions need to be stored / handled / reported and the level of testing / documentation requried.

Mark

p.s. Agree with Gary above another day or so for thorough testing and documentation.

 

Thanks very much guys. As I thought, even if you take your conservative estimates and double them to allow for proper dev/test/documentation, that's still only a week. Half day a week over 3 months should have seen it done and he's certainly had much more time than that.
Someone is either taking the **** or overstating their level of expertise...

 

I would say depends on the primary key to be used - it could be complicated. But I (and I would expect my developers too as well) keep coming back to clarify if it was getting complicated. Saying that if you could do it with vlookups then I also would expect a 2-3 days for a mid level developer. An expert "should" at least having a working (non documented) version in a day or two, especially if you let then the original excel sheet and say copy this.

Been in this situation before and let someone have numerous "attempts" - in the end we had to go different ways, but my gut feeling was right. If the SQL bod cannot explain why it is taking so long go with your original thought.

3 months = taking the p155

In fact looking at your brief requirements this would fit DTS. Some sql server developers, forget to use that. What has he used to provide the unworking solution?

If you want send me original spreadsheet (if it is not confidential) and I can give you a better time estimate.

Dave.

ps

In fact if this summerises your requirements then 1 day is the estimated for a quick solution.

1. Create 7 master lists in one table (master) with a key of list number
2. Import 7 comparision lists into a temporary table (compare) with a key of list number
3. Create one sql statement to list items missing in the compate table from the master table - build descriptive string
for ease put result in report table
4. Create iterative sql statement to compare each list (ie loop through lists 1 to 7)
put result in report table
5. Report on rows in report table

add extra time for reporting missing lists, keeping dated revisions of the list for historic info, changing "goldensource" and for level of front end

 

I would agrees DTS is probably the better solution, in answer to your question, i would say 3 days dev, 1 day testing, 1 day documention. Thats 5 working days in total, at a push 7 days, any more and you should expect the SQL Bod to be able to tell you why things are taking so long..

 

Thanks for the replies (and the offer of further help Dave )

Confirmed some suspicions and with the joy of managed resource, said resource will not be back on site and they've been told to supply someone good (I appreciate that anyone really good wouldn't necessarily be working for a supplier but you've got to hope...!)

 

may be a dumb question but what is a "managed resource" ?

 

Instead of hiring contractors, you deal with a third party company like Morse or Computer People and they supply people to fill roles. The contract is to supply qualified bods, not specific people so if you don't like what you get, you get a replacement. Same effect as contractors but without a great deal of hassle. They'll also supply for a few days if required so great for holiday cover.

 

Managed resource is ok - but at least with contractors you can judge the personality For that job it sounds like you needed a fixed price