Title: I think it was Fred Brooks Jr in "The Mythical Man Month" who said that when planning a project he spent 1/3 of the time on design, 1/6 of the time coding, 1/4 of the time on component testing, and 1/4 of the time on system integration and testing.<p>I've found these estimates to be remarkably accurate and use them all the time.  If I think something will take a day of coding, it usually takes a week of work to get it properly done.  That's not one day from midday Tuesday to midday Wednesday because I turn it into 3 mini-projects and run around the design/write/test/integrate cycle as fast as possible, but it's a surprisingly good predictor.<p>I now use it when estimating other people's work.  If they say it will take a day, or a week, I multiply by 6.  If they say it will take a month, it'll never be done.<p>Unless they're using the same rule ...
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