My effort estimations were mostly made based on my best guess of how long I felt it would take me on average to complete the task, without really basing it on anything concrete. As I personally haven’t had any prior software development experience before this class, I didn’t have a good foundation to make accurate or realistic estimations based on my skill level.
Pretty much all of my estimations involving coding tasks were inaccurate and inconsistent — it could take me more or less time than I initially estimated. I think the benefit of making effort estimations before doing the actual task is that it gives a rough idea of how much time it might take, allowing me to plan ahead and allocate time or start a few days before the deadline to avoid being rushed while completing my tasks.
I think the benefit of tracking the actual effort was very helpful for me, as I didn’t know how long it would realistically take someone to complete a software development task. Tracking my actual effort gave me at least a small idea of how much time certain tasks generally take. Personally, I don’t see any downside to tracking actual effort — it’s passive, doesn’t actively consume time or energy, and is very helpful and informative in my opinion.
For all coding-related tasks, I used the extension WakaTime in Visual Studio Code. It was easy to set up, was provided as an option in class, and I found it very convenient and simple to use since you don’t have to do anything after installing and setting it up. For non-coding tasks, I used my best guess, or if it involved something that tracked time, I would calculate the time from start to finish. I believe most of my actual effort data was very accurate, as WakaTime only tracks when you are actively using Visual Studio Code, which made up most of my actual effort. This eliminated human error in tracking.
There was little to no overhead in tracking my effort during this project. It didn’t inhibit my working speed or efficiency at all, as it was either done before I even started working or was very easy to pay attention to and track while doing other tasks.
This essay used ChatGPT for spelling and grammar mistakes.