Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#1

Post by Quenhus » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 2:49 PM UTC

Hi HackerNews, I'm a young student and I develop little projects for fun during my free time. My problem is that I have absolutely no idea how to estimate the potential of my work, if it's possible. I don't study computer science for now, so no teacher could answer me and that's why I'm asking to you. How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it? If it's impossible to answer, I'm also interested in understanding why.

Here is my work : https://www.husnet.fr/quentin/SolarPowerPlant/

Here more precision : it's a solar power plant simulator library that gives the potential power generated by the plant, according to a lot of parameters : mirrors' geometry, sun position, latitude,... It's in Javascript and works thanks to ThreeJS.

Thanks a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#2

Post by onion2k » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it?

I reckon 25 days is a fair estimate. That breaks down to;

1 day to research sun position, azimuth, etc.

2 days to figure out the various bits of maths involved and write code to do the calculations.

4 days to build a working interactive 3D model.

2 days to build the charts and tables.

5 days for a designer to make a great layout, build assets, etc.

6 days to bring everything together in a website that works across different browsers.

3 days for device testing.

2 days to cover meetings, phone calls, etc.

At a rate of $800/day that's $20,000. I'd add a $5,000 (20%) buffer on to that to cover unexpected scope changes.

$25,000 for what appears to be a single page might sound high, but if the company is getting, say, $500,000 of value from it then it's really cheap. I know of agencies that would charge 10* that if they thought the client could afford it.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#3

Post by crobertsbmw » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:23 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #2

How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it? I reckon 25 days is a fair estimate. That breaks down to; 1 day to research sun position, azimuth, etc. 2 days to figure out the various bits of maths involved and write code to do the calculations. 4 days to build a working interactive 3D model. 2 days to build the charts and tables. 5 days for a designer to make a great layou…

That assumes $800 a day. If the OP is a student, whoever is hiring him is probably expecting to pay closer to $200 a day. But they should also probably assume it's going to take a student 4x longer to finish the project (if ever), so it probably comes out to about the same price either way.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#4

Post by Quenhus » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:34 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #2

How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it? I reckon 25 days is a fair estimate. That breaks down to; 1 day to research sun position, azimuth, etc. 2 days to figure out the various bits of maths involved and write code to do the calculations. 4 days to build a working interactive 3D model. 2 days to build the charts and tables. 5 days for a designer to make a great layou…

Thanks a lot. It looks like a really fair estimate, much more reasonable than what I would be able to provide.

It seems absolutely unbelievable for me that my project costs so much, but it makes me proud of my work.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#5

Post by itamarst » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:39 PM UTC

Don't charge by the day! Your costs have nothing to do with how much it's worth to a customer.

Talk to companies that might be target market. Figure out how much it would save them.

1. Nothing. But maybe you can use feedback to improve the product so it is worth something to them.

2. It saves them $10000 a year. You can't charge $25,000.

3. It saves them $5000000 a year. You can charge more than $25000.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#6

Post by Quenhus » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:40 PM UTC

crobertsbmw wrote: post #3

onion2k wrote: post #2

How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it? I reckon 25 days is a fair estimate. That breaks down to; 1 day to research sun position, azimuth, etc. 2 days to figure out the various bits of maths involved and write code to do the calculations. 4 days to build a working interactive 3D model. 2 days to build the charts and tables. 5 days for a designer to make a great layou…

That assumes $800 a day. If the OP is a student, whoever is hiring him is probably expecting to pay closer to $200 a day. But they should also probably assume it's going to take a student 4x longer to finish the project (if ever), so it probably comes out to about the same price either way.

Yes I'm a student so $200/day sounds great. Though, I'm not even sure that a company could be interested about my project. I was not asking its value in order to sell it, but just to start conceiving how much does a a project cost for a company. Thanks a lot for your reply.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#7

Post by Quenhus » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

itamarst wrote: post #5

Don't charge by the day! Your costs have nothing to do with how much it's worth to a customer. Talk to companies that might be target market. Figure out how much it would save them. 1. Nothing. But maybe you can use feedback to improve the product so it is worth something to them. 2. It saves them $10000 a year. You can't charge $25,000. 3. It saves them $5000000 a year. You can charge more than $25000.

Thanks for the advice. I don't think that a company is interested about this project. However, it would be absolutely awesome and I might start looking for that when I will be a little bit more professional.

Re: Ask HN: How much could I estimate my project?

#8

Post by onion2k » Thu, Mar 22, 2018, 7:26 PM UTC

Quenhus wrote: post #4

onion2k wrote: post #2

How much would this 3D Solar Power Plant simulator cost if a company needed to pay for it? I reckon 25 days is a fair estimate. That breaks down to; 1 day to research sun position, azimuth, etc. 2 days to figure out the various bits of maths involved and write code to do the calculations. 4 days to build a working interactive 3D model. 2 days to build the charts and tables. 5 days for a designer to make a great layou…

Thanks a lot. It looks like a really fair estimate, much more reasonable than what I would be able to provide. It seems absolutely unbelievable for me that my project costs so much, but it makes me proud of my work.

Finding clients willing to pay for good work is hard, but if you can do it you can make a really good living. You clearly have the ability to build great stuff; there's a fun career in this web stuff if you fancy it.