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User’s Guide Galorath Incorporated

www.galorath.com

Corporate Headquarters El Segundo, CA USA

Phone: +1 (310) 414 3222 E-mail: [email protected]

Support: www.galorath.com/index.php/services/product-support

International Headquarters Galorath International Ltd. Farnham, Surrey UK

Phone: +44 (0) 1252 724518 E-mail: [email protected]

®

SEER for IT User's Guide

SEER for IT

October 2015. Printed in the United States of America.

The SEER for IT Documentation Team: KM, MC, SA.

Copyright 2015 by Galorath Incorporated. SEER® is a trademark of Galorath Incorporated.

No portion of this manual (except where explicitly stated) may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Galorath Incorporated.


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SEER for IT User Guide Contents SEER for IT User Guide.................................................................................................................. 3 Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 5

How to Reach Galorath Incorporated ...................................................................................... 5 Technical Support Checklist...................................................................................................... 5

Using SEER-IT ................................................................................................................................ 6 Understanding the SEER-IT Estimate........................................................................................ 7 SEER-IT Basic Concepts........................................................................................................... 11 Basic functions for using SEER-IT............................................................................................ 12 Tools for exporting / printing SEER-IT results......................................................................... 19 Tools to help build SEER-IT Estimates .................................................................................... 19

SEER-IT Estimation Elements...................................................................................................... 20 SEER-IT Estimation Element Inputs: Parameters....................................................................... 22

Project .................................................................................................................................... 22 Purchased Hardware / Purchased Software Inputs ............................................................... 22 Application Development Inputs............................................................................................ 28 Software/Database Services Inputs........................................................................................ 29 End User Services Inputs ........................................................................................................ 37 DESKTOPS/ NOTEBOOKS / MOBILE DEVICES / OTHER DEVICES............................................. 37 Infrastructure Services Inputs ................................................................................................ 39 Facilities Inputs ....................................................................................................................... 45 Training Inputs........................................................................................................................ 47 Service Desk Inputs................................................................................................................. 52 Additional Items Inputs .......................................................................................................... 58 User Documentation Inputs ................................................................................................... 60 Architecture/Design Inputs .................................................................................................... 66

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Parameters Tab................................................................................. 77 Additional Item Inputs............................................................................................................ 77 Search Catalog ........................................................................................................................ 82 Ongoing Support Inputs ......................................................................................................... 83

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Schedule Tab..................................................................................... 86 SCHEDULE............................................................................................................................... 86 ONGOING SUPPORT ............................................................................................................... 88

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Economic Factor Tab ........................................................................ 88 In-house Hourly Labor Rate.................................................................................................... 88 Contractor Hourly Labor Rate ................................................................................................ 89 Percentage of Labor In-House................................................................................................ 89


CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE RATE...........................................................................................90 SEER-IT Common Inputs: Labor Category Allocation Tab ..........................................................91

PROJECT LABOR ALLOCATION.................................................................................................91 SEER-IT Features..........................................................................................................................92

Activities and Labor Categories...............................................................................................92 SEER-IT Output Definitions......................................................................................................96 SEER-IT Reports .....................................................................................................................104 SEER-IT Charts .......................................................................................................................109 Project Parameters in SEER-IT...............................................................................................114 SEER-IT Knowledge Bases......................................................................................................119 Risk Analysis ..........................................................................................................................135

Administrative Tasks .................................................................................................................137 SEER-IT API ............................................................................................................................137 SEER-IT Settings.INI ...............................................................................................................138 The SEER Project Database ...................................................................................................138 Editing the Catalog Database ................................................................................................139 Calibrating SEER-IT ................................................................................................................142 Scenarios ...............................................................................................................................144

Global Quantities and the Expression Editor ............................................................................147 Definitions .............................................................................................................................147 Global Quantities FAQ...........................................................................................................148 Add/Edit Global Quantity Dialog Box....................................................................................151 Expression Editor: Background ............................................................................................152 Expression Editor Dialog Box.................................................................................................153 Basic Global Quantities Tutorial............................................................................................157 Global Quantities / Expression Editor Custom Input Tutorial...............................................160 Expression Editor Custom Calculation Tutorial.....................................................................165


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Introduction Welcome to the SEER for IT or SEER-IT user's guide. SEER-IT is an application for estimating the cost of large IT projects. This user's guide explains how SEER-IT works and tells you everything that you need to know in order to create a complete IT project estimate with it.

This user's guide assumes that SEER-IT has already been installed and configured on your system. At the end of the user's guide, there is a section which includes information on some common administrative tasks. There is a separate SEER-IT technical installation guide for system administrators.

How to Reach Galorath Incorporated Please feel free to contact us at Galorath for technical support or any other reason:

Voice: (310) 414-3222 Fax: (310) 414-3220

E-Mail: [email protected] Internet: www.galorath.com/index.php/services/product-support

We are happy to answer any questions you may have.

Technical Support Checklist To help us give you the best technical support possible, please have the following information ready when you contact us:

• Registration information, including company name and contact name. • Your serial number, found on the program’s main screen before loading a project. • The version number of SEER-IT that you are using. • Your computer model and the amount of memory that it uses. • Your Windows operating system type, version number, and service pack level.


Using SEER-IT SEER-IT is a program for estimating the cost and schedule of IT projects from initial design through ongoing support. It is part of the SEER series of cost-estimation applications (including SEER for Software, SEER for Hardware, and SEER for Manufacturing), and like them, SEER-IT is parametric, taking into account a wide range of factors which can affect the cost of a project. And, like the other SEER estimation products, SEER-IT makes use of knowledge bases which combine the accumulated experience of Galorath's cost-estimation experts with high-quality data from a variety of sources (and if you choose, you own organization's in-house knowledge and expertise). SEER-IT is designed for estimating IT projects of any size, including corporate, enterprise-wide, and global-scale. It includes both core IT and support services, providing a truly comprehensive IT estimate. Like the other SEER estimating applications, SEER-IT organizes estimates using a standard Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) composed of individual work elements and rollups.

SEER-IT includes the following types of work element:

SEER-IT Work Element Types


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Understanding the SEER-IT Estimate A SEER-IT estimate (as shown in reports and charts) is organized in the following manner:

High Level Estimate Breakout: Project and Ongoing Support At the highest level, a SEER-IT estimate is broken down into two categories: Project and Ongoing Support.

Highest Level SEER-IT Breakout

Project Project labor or cost refers to non-recurring effort and cost. Project effort or cost refers to the sum of the analysis, design, procurement, construction, testing, training and distribution phases.

Ongoing Support Ongoing support captures the effort and cost associated with a system that is operational. The scope of the ongoing support cost will be determined by the support duration parameter for any given element.

High Level Estimate Breakout: Costs and Schedule Both the Project and Ongoing Support categories are further broken down into Labor Hours, Labor Cost, Material Cost, and Schedule, with labor optionally broken down into in-house or contractor.


SEER-IT Cost and Schedule

Labor Hours The work hours required to complete either project or ongoing support tasks.

Labor Cost The cost associated with the labor hours.

Material Cost The cost of purchased hardware, software and other non-labor items.

Schedule The overall duration of an individual activity, the overall project, or ongoing support.


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High Level Estimate Breakout: Activities and Labor Categories It is also possible to create a more detailed division of the Project and Ongoing Support categories into activities, representing phases, or types of task, with labor (both hours and cost) divided into labor categories, or roles, representing generic IT job categories. Under this type of detailed breakdown, the effort for a given activity can come from several labor categories, and in each of those categories, some of the labor can be in-house, and some can be done by contractors.

High Level SEER-IT Breakout With Activities

Activities All labor hours, labor costs and material costs are allocated into one of the general IT activities. The high level activities include project and ongoing support. Project estimates are broken down into analysis, design, procurement, construction, testing, training, and distribution, and may include some or all of these activities. They are time phased and may have one another.

Labor Categories The labor component of the activity estimates are further subdivided into labor categories or roles. Labor categories include management, analyst, architect, software development, technician, test/QA, documentation, training, administrator, operator and indirect support.


Labor Categories in SEER-IT

Other Ways of Looking at a SEER-IT Estimate: Time Phased Estimates may be looked at as static totals, or evaluated over time.

Monthly Labor hours and costs either by phase or role are reported by month.

Annual Labor hours and costs by aggregated into annual totals for high level budgetary planning.

Other Ways of Looking at a SEER-IT Estimate: Cost Classification In addition to activities and roles, estimates can also be classified as in-house and contractor.

In-House Labor costs for effort performed by in-house staff. All labor is categorized as in-house by default and is determined by the in-house labor rates.

Contractor Labor costs for effort performed by contractor staff. Contractor labor costs are determined by the contractor labor rates and the percentage of effort allocated to the contractor.


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SEER-IT Basic Concepts The SEER-IT screen layout is similar to other SEER estimation tools, although it has some features which are unique to the SEER-IT interface.

WBS Elements Toolbar Use these buttons to create different types of WBS elements in your project. This toolbar gives you quick access to creating a WBS structure.

Work Breakdown Structure The elements of the work breakdown structure or WBS represent your estimation elements. Each element has a set of parameters and calculated results. You may arrange your elements in any way that suits your project, including multiple levels of indenture.

Inputs The key inputs that drive SEER-IT's estimate calculations appear in the Inputs window, which is organized into tabs. Each tab represents a different overall category of input. This user's guide contains detailed descriptions of each of the SEER-IT inputs. The leftmost tab is the Parameters tab; it includes most of the inputs which are specific to each work element type, along with some general-purpose inputs which are common to most work element types.

SEER-IT Input Window Tabs

The Schedule tab includes inputs for the start date and duration of each activity, or phase, associated with the work element. The Economic Factors tab allows you to enter in-house and contractor labor rates, as well as the percentage of in-house labor, for each labor category for the work element. The Labor Category Allocation tab displays the current allocation of activities (groups of related tasks) to labor categories and allows you to change them. If you are using Calibration Mode or are editing a Knowledge Base, the Calibration tab will be visible as well; you can it to adjust SEER-IT to reflect conditions in your organization, or to design Knowledge Bases. Most inputs apply within the scope of a specific work element, although there are several ways of applying input values to multiple work elements. SEER-IT also allows you to create project-wide input values (Global Quantities) which can be applied by default across all work elements of a specified type. You can manually override these Global Quantities, or use mathematical/logical expressions to automatically modify them for individual work elements.


Note: By default, only the Parameters, Schedule, and Economic Factors tabs are visible. The Labor Category Allocation tab becomes visible if you select it in the View menu. The Calibration tab, however, remains invisible unless you are in Calibration mode or are editing a Knowledge Base.

Reports Choose from several reports to see your estimate by phase, labor category or even a breakout of in-house versus outsourced costs.

Charts Charts provide a visual representation of your estimate.

SEER-IT Main Window

Basic functions for using SEER-IT The following sections describe the basic steps and features used to build a SEER-IT estimate.

Creating a Project To create a project, select File/New or the New from the toolbat, then enter a project name and analyst. Once that is done, you can start entering WBS elements into your project.

At any time after you create a SEER-IT project, you can save it in any location where you have write access on your system or on a network. SEER-IT project files have the extension IT.


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Creating a WBS Once a project is created, you can insert WBS elements to describe the major components of your project. WBS elements can be added by clicking the WBS element bar or going to the Edit/Insert WBS element menu. When you create an element you can give it a name and select knowledge bases.

Entering Parameters and Other Inputs The data that you enter in Parameters tab and the other tabs in the Inputs window is the basis of a SEER-IT estimate.

You will enter some input values directly. They will appear in boldface type in the appropriate tab of the inputs window. Some inputs get their values from the knowledge bases that you select, while others are calculated from lower-level inputs. Linked (target) input are in color and enclosed in double brackets: <<linked input>>.

Category level inputs (with + or - to the left of the name) represent groups of inputs. Double-click on a category input to display or hide its subordinate inputs. Data can be entered in some, but not all, category level input.

Input Dialog Box

Typical Three-value Numeric Input Dialog Box

When you double-click on an input or select it and press ENTER, the input entry dialog box will appear. The details of the dialog box depend on the input itself, but most input entry dialog boxes have several features in common:


Item Description

Input entry fields One or more fields for entering or selecting input settings. Options depend on the input itself. See: Input Entry Field Formats, below.

Use Global Quantities

If this checkbox is checked, the input values will be set either by a specific project-wide Global Quantity (created, with values and links specified, at the Project work-element level), or by a mathematical/ logical expression (created using the Expression Editor).

Expression Editor button

This button (to the left of the Use Global Quantities checkbox) allows you to create and edit a mathematical/logical expression, which can be based on both Global Quantities and the values of other inputs, and which will automatically determine the input values of the current parameter if Use Global Quantities is checked.

Parameter help Help window describing the input, with links to main help system.

Notes View, enter, and edit any descriptive or informational notes for the input. Notes can include URL and file links.

Maximize Note Brings up the Edit Note dialog box, for advanced note editing and entry. Notes can include URL/file links, as well as attached files. Linked files may be located on a local or network drive or on the Internet; clicking on the link retrieves the file from that location, which may not always be available. An attached file, however, is stored with the estimate, and will always be available. Note text can be formatted. Controls include font, size, color, bold/italic/underline, paragraph alignment, indentation, and bullet points.

Previous Bring up the previous item on the input list.

Next Bring up the next item on the input list.

KBase / Inputs Click on the Kbase button to revert to the current knowledge base's default settings for the input. When you do this, the button's name changes to Inputs; clicking on Inputs reverts to the last saved user-input value for the input.

More Help Bring up the main SEER-IT help page for this input.

OK Exit the dialog box, saving any changes.

Cancel Exit the dialog box without saving any changes.


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Input Entry Field Formats Below are the most common formats for input entry and selection fields:

Three-value Numeric

Three-value Numeric Input

Used for quantities, sizes, duration, and other numeric values. Numeric inputs can be in integer, decimal, or percentage format, depending on the type of parameter. The values are labeled Least, Likely, Most, representing the lowest reasonable value, the most likely value, and the greatest reasonable value. To place the same value in all three fields (if, for example, the actual input value is known, and not an estimate), enter it in the Least field, then click on the > button below that field or press the > key.

Parameter Calculator

You can use SEER-IT's built-in parameter calculator to calculate a value for a numeric input.

Parameter Calculator

To use the calculator, select a numeric input and press the = key. You can use the keyboard or mouse to operate it. When you have calculated the input value, use the enter or = key to close the calculator and place the calculated value in the input field.


Expression Editor

If you want to automatically set the value of a numeric input based on more complex calculations involving the values of other parameters along with Global Quantities, you can select Use Global Quantities (so that its checkbox is checked) then click on the Expression Editor button to its left to bring up the Expression Editor. Both Global Quantities and the Expression Editor are covered in depth later in this User's Guide.

Expression Editor


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Three-value Slider

Three-value Slider Input

Used for most non-numeric inputs. Enter Least, Likely, Most values by using sliders to select relative values (usually ranging from Very Low to Very High, or Extra Low to Extra High). SEER-IT will convert these entries into numeric values for internal calculation. Help for these inputs generally includes specific definitions for each value on the scale. The > button and key function in the same manner as with the three-value numeric inputs. A few parameters have single-value sliding inputs.

Drop-down List

Drop-down List Input

Some non-numeric inputs have drop-down lists with discrete values for which a relative scale would be inappropriate, such as types or models of equipment . Click on the down arrow, and select an item from the list.


Yes/No

Yes/No Input

Used for Yes/No options. Use the Y and N keys on the keyboard to make a selection.

Date

Date Input

A few inputs are in date format. You can enter a date in MM/DD/YYYY format, or click on the calendar-icon button next to the date field to select it from a pop-up calendar.

Viewing Results After you create an estimate, SEER-IT can display the data in a variety of reports and charts, which you can view, print, link, copy (as Windows metafiles), or export. You can use reports and charts to evaluate tradeoffs interactively, since they instantly reflect input changes. You can select, configure, and devise new reports and charts to suit your needs. In addition, you can select program outputs and inputs to export, configuring the order and format of the exported data to suit your purposes.


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Tools for exporting / printing SEER-IT results Previewing and Printing Reports You can preview and print SEER-IT reports from the File menu or Preview toolbar button. Print Preview lets you preview reports and export them to a variety of formats including PDF, Excel and RTF.

Flexible Export The Flexible Export feature offers a more sophisticated method of exporting SEER-IT inputs and/or outputs. You can create templates that capture any combination of SEER-IT outputs and inputs and save them for use with other project files. SEER-IT ships with several templates that are good starting points for you to create your own. Using Flexible Export, you can:

Format information for other programs. Communicate with other project management tools. Display output sorted by rows or columns for specialized reports. Export a single work element, an element and its subordinates, or the entire project.

Tools to help build SEER-IT Estimates Knowledge Bases Knowledge bases are used by all SEER tools to help build estimates quickly and accurately. They are organized by SEER-IT element type and contain default parameter settings for common estimation scenarios. The knowledge base categories offered by SEER-IT are:

Task Type Defines the type of effort that is being modeled and generally describes some sort of IT artifact. Examples include application server, managed desktop, or rack server.

Category Further categorizes the operational environment, typically in terms of usage volume and criticality.

Scope Defines the scope of the estimate in terms of activities and phases. For estimates that include upfront project effort, it can be described as new, upgrade, migration or decommission. If ongoing support is included, the default is for a period of 5 years.

Economic Factors This is generally used to load default labor rates for the different roles.


Classification This category is not used by any knowledge bases shipped with SEER-IT and can be used for any custom knowledge bases built by your organization.

Other This category is left open for custom knowledge bases to be built by your organization. Although specific knowledge bases are generally developed by an organization's SEER-IT administrator, some standard knowledge bases are packaged with the software as examples.

Risk SEER-IT converts Least, Likely, Most inputs (see above) into probability distributions, which it uses to produce estimates with ranges of possible outcomes. Estimates of this type are more realistic than those with single outcomes, and let you make more informed decisions. You enter the Least, Likely, Most values at the parameter level. The program uses a modified version of PERT to calculate probability distributions. At the rollup/project level, SEER-IT uses Monte Carlo sampling to calculate risk. It produces risk reports and charts at both the program and project/rollup levels.

SEER-IT Estimation Elements SEER-IT has a collection estimation elements used to build your project WBS. Each element has a set of inputs, calculations, rates and factors used to compute costs.

Rollup The rollup element is a summary element and represents the sum of the elements beneath it. You can use rollups to help organize your WBS into logical groupings.

Purchased Hardware

The purchased hardware element is used for bringing in procurement and support costs for purchased or leased hardware items.

Purchased Software The purchased software element is used for bringing in procurement and support costs for purchased or leased software items.

Application Development The application development element is used for bringing in estimated software development effort. Development effort can be entered in one of three ways: 1) a summary total number of hours, 2) hours by phase, or 3) hours by labor category.


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Software/Database Services Software/Database Services is used to estimate the effort associated with deploying and supporting enterprise applications, databases and supporting middleware and software services. This element covers effort for analyzing release requirements, preparing a release plan, developing installation prototypes and packages, database setup, operational testing of the deployment and end-user distribution. This element also includes effort for software upgrades, updates, application administration and database administration as part of the ongoing support effort.

End User Services End User Services is used to estimate the effort associated with the setup, deployment and support of end user systems such as PCs, notebooks, mobile devices and tablets. This element covers the effort for analyzing end user needs, system setup, test and checkout. This element also includes effort for user administration, advanced problem resolution and hardware maintenance and upgrades as part of the ongoing support effort.

Infrastructure Services Infrastructure Services is used to estimate the effort associated with the setup, deployment, test and checkout of infrastructure systems such as servers, storage systems and networks. Ongoing support captures effort for capacity management, performance monitoring & tuning, system support, advanced problem resolution, systems maintenance and upgrades.

Facilities The Facilities element is used to estimate the cost of installing network cables in a facility, plus facility build out costs if needed. Ongoing support captures cost for utilities, telecom services, supplies and other miscellaneous facility related services.

Training Training is used to estimate the effort for developing training programs and courseware as well as delivering training. You may optionally include the cost for purchased training.

Service Desk Service Desk is used to estimate the operation of a service desk function which covers tier 1 support of hardware systems and applications used.

User Documentation User Documentation is used to estimate the effort to develop and publish user documentation associated with IT applications and systems.

Architecture/Design Architecture/Design is used to estimate Systems Engineering costs of an IT project. This element is applicable to certain SEER-IT editions.


Additional Items The additional items element is used to enter any additional costs or effort that is not organically estimated by SEER-IT.

SEER-IT Estimation Element Inputs: Parameters Most SEER-IT estimation elements have a set of detailed inputs which are generally unique to that element, as well as several groups of inputs which are common to most elements. The Parameters tab in the Inputs window contains the inputs which are unique to the work element. This section of the user's guide describes the Parameter tab inputs for each work element, organized by work element. Following the parameter inputs section, you will find descriptions of the common inputs, arranged by tab. Note: Rollups (except for the Project-level Rollup) do not have any inputs, and as shown below, Purchased Hardware and Purchased Software share the same set of Parameter tab inputs.

Project The Project-level work element has one input category, GLOBAL QUANTITIES:

GLOBAL QUANTITIES Global quantities are quantities which you set at the project level, and which can be used to set the default values of parameters in subordinate work elements. Global Quantities can be used in conjunction with the Expression Editor, which allows you to set default parameter values based on mathematical/logical expressions.

For a full description of both Global Quantities and the Expression Editor, see Global Quantities and the Expression Editor.

Purchased Hardware / Purchased Software Inputs Purchased Hardware and Purchased Software share the same set of inputs:

Description Name, number, or other descriptive information identifying the hardware or software to be purchased. Click on the Search Catalog button to retrieve information from a database.


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Search Database Dialog Box

Item Description

Type Lists types of hardware or software. These are general categories, such as Application Server, General Server and PCs, Office Productivity, Web Services, etc.

Description Lists specific types of item within the general category. Fields include a descriptive name, vendor, quantity, support interval, and costs for initial purchase and support.

When you select an item, its quantity will be automatically entered into the Quantity parameter. (You can adjust the quantity in the Quantity parameter dialog box, if necessary.)

See: Search Catalog

Type Identifying information for the purchased hardware or software; does not impact the estimate directly. This input may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database.

Vendor Identifying information for the purchased hardware or software; does not impact the estimate directly. This input may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database.


Quantity The number of purchased units of the hardware or software described. This value will be multiplied by the purchase cost to yield a total purchase cost. If the purchase cost input includes the cost for all units, this input should be set to one. If you use the Search Database option to select an item in the Description parameter, its quantity from the database will automatically be entered here; you can adjust the quantity as required.

Quantity Unit of Measure Use of this parameter is optional; you can ignore it, unless you have a specific need to use it.

The Quantity Unit of Measure serves strictly as a label for the Quantity parameter. It is designed for use in organizations where there is a specific need to label Purchased Hardware/Software/Additional Item quantities for in-house reference. It will be available for flexible export, and it will be saved to the SEER-DB project database. It will not have any effect on estimates.

Each item in the QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE list will appear as a selection in the Quantity Unit of Measure parameter's pull-down selection list. There are separate QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE sections in SEER-IT Settings.ini for Purchased hardware, Purchased Software, and Additional Items. The default lists include items commonly associated with the work element in question. Quantity Unit of Measure lists can be customized by editing the SEER-IT Settings.INI file, as described below. See SEER-IT Settings.INI in this user's guide for a description of the INI file and instructions for locating it on your system.

Editing [* - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE] The information below applies to the following sections of SEER-IT Settings.INI: [PURCHASED HARDWARE - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE], [PURCHASED SOFTWARE - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE], and [ADDITIONAL ITEMS - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE]

Each item in the QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE list will appear as a selection in the Quantity Unit of Measure parameter's pull-down selection list. The Quantity Unit of Measure serves strictly as a label for the Quantity parameter. It is designed for use in organizations where there is a specific need to label Purchased Hardware/Software/Additional Item quantities for in-house reference. The default lists include items commonly associated with the work element in question. Maximum number of items per [* - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE] section: 50, with one item per line Maximum number of characters per item: 127


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The first line of each [* - QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE] section is NumberOfItems=t where t is the total number of items on the list. Note that items are numbered starting with Item0, so if the last item on the list is Item6, NumberOfItems will be 7. Each line following NumberOfItems consists of an item, in the following format: Itemn=item name where n is the item number and item name is the name of the item as it will appear Quantity Unit of Measure pull-down list. Item numbers should be in sequence, starting with the next available number. The item name may include spaces.

Look at the following example, using the default list for Purchased Software: NumberOfItems=7 Item0=Licenses Item1=Seats Item2=Sites Item3=Users Item4=Transactions Item5=Virtual Machines Item6=Hours If you wanted to include Minutes as a quantity, you would add it to the end of the list, as Item7, and increment the NumberOfItems setting accordingly, like this: NumberOfItems=8 Item0=Licenses Item1=Seats Item2=Sites Item3=Users Item4=Transactions Item5=Virtual Machines Item6=Hours Item7=Minutes

Purchase Cost (One Time) The cost of the hardware or software described. This value will be multiplied by the quantity to yield a total purchase cost, and therefore will typically represent the cost for a single unit. Input values for purchase cost may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database and purchase cost information is provided, or they may be entered directly.


Months Use of this parameter is optional; you can ignore it, unless you have a specific need to use it.

The purpose of the Months parameter is to capture recurring costs during the Project phase (as opposed to Ongoing Support). To do this, you must also enter the per-month cost in the Monthly Cost parameter.

Enter the duration of Project-phase recurring costs in months. If there are no recurring costs during the Project phase, or if all such costs are accounted for by other inputs, leave this input blank. If recurring costs are for support only, enter them under Ongoing Support, and not here.

Any input in this parameter will be converted into weeks, and added to the SCHEDULE \ Other \ Other Duration (Weeks) parameter. It will be reflected in the Phased Activity, Cost by Fiscal Year, and Then Costs by Fiscal Year reports.

Note that this is an integer input; it will accept only whole months.

Monthly Cost Use of this parameter is optional; you can ignore it, unless you have a specific need to use it.

The purpose of the Monthly Cost parameter is to capture recurring costs during the Project phase (as opposed to Ongoing Support). To do this, you must also enter the number of months for the recurring cost in the Months parameter. Enter the per-month recurring cost here. If recurring costs vary over time, enter the average per-month cost for the period covered. If there are no recurring costs during the Project phase, or if all such costs are accounted for by other inputs, leave this input blank. If recurring costs are for support only, enter them under Ongoing Support, rather than here. These costs will appear in the "Other" category in the Phased Activity, Cost by Fiscal Year, and Then Costs by Fiscal Year reports.

Ongoing Support Category input. Select Yes to include ongoing support cost and time in the estimate and display the parameters listed below.

Ongoing Support Start Date The start date for ongoing support, which can either be manually entered, or automatically entered from the computed value. If the Use Computed Value box is checked, the start date will be at the end of the period specified in the Months input. If the Months input is set to 0, the Ongoing Support Start Date will be the current date.

Support Duration The duration in years for ongoing support. This should reflect the length of time that needs to be included in your estimate.


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Annual Quantity Growth Accounts for the annual percentage growth (or shrinkage) of the quantity during ongoing support.

Growth will occur after the first fiscal year of ongoing support, and may range from -100% to +100%.

Support Interval The interval in which support costs are incurred for the hardware or software item. Services include common maintenance tasks, health checks, recommendations by a technical representative, installation of updates and upgrades, implementation of new hardware or software, etc.

Support Interval Choices: Annual Bi-Annual Quarterly Monthly One Time None

This input may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database.

Support Cost Per Interval The cost of the support service specified in the Support Interval parameter. This input may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database. Support cost is multiplied by the Quantity input. Note: Ongoing Support labor for maintaining systems may also be parametrically estimated using the Infrastructure Services or End User Services modules of SEER-IT. This support cost is typically used for the cost of warranty or service contract provided by a vendor.


Application Development Inputs DEVELOPMENT Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Level of Detail The level of detail in which application development hours are entered. The selection determine which inputs are available for application development hours.

Detail Level Description

Summary Hours are entered as a total.

Labor Hours are entered by labor category.

Phase Hours are entered by phase.

Development Hours (Summary Level of Detail) Total development labor hours to be added into the project for this work element. Development labor cost will be computed based on the allocation of labor hours and the rates found in the economic factors. Input values may be brought in from other applications (e.g., SEER-SEM) or entered directly.

Phase Allocation Method (Summary and Labor Levels of Detail) Determines how application development hours will be allocated into the project phases.

Method Description

Standard Hours are allocated according to a standard phase allocation table.

Construction All hours will be allocated to the Construction phase.

Level of Detail Labor Category (Labor Level of Detail) Enter software development hours to be allocated to the labor categories listed below. Development labor cost will be computed based on the labor rates in the economic factors for their respective categories.

Management Documentation Analyst Training Architect Administrator Software Development Operator Technician Indirect Support Test/QA


Pa

Level of Detail Phase (Phase level of Detail) Software development hours to be allocated to the phases listed below. Development labor cost will be computed based on the labor rates in the economic factors for their respective categories.

Analysis Test Design Training Procurement Distribution Construction

Software/Database Services Inputs USERS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Number of Users The expected number of users of the application(s) and/or database(s). Users typically require various degrees of setup and administration, and will also drive application testing efforts. Specific user-related parameters are found in the Application and Database sections.

Concurrent Users The required number of concurrent users that the software application will need to support. SEER-IT will compute the number of concurrent users if this input is left at zero.

User Turnover The percentage of new users each year. This input is used to determine the number of users requiring updates and support during ongoing support. As turnover increases, the number of users requiring application setup during ongoing support will increase.

Business Units Number of business units/stakeholders supported by the project. This input will be used to impact distribution effort as more organizations are involved.

Physical Locations/Instances The number of instances or physical installations required for an application. After the initial setup, subsequent instances are essentially clones of the first configuration, allowing for some minor configuration differences. Generally the number of instances will relate to the number of production servers that are needed.

Development, test and QA environments are also considered different instances of an application, however you may want to model them separately from the production configuration since support requirements may be different.


For standalone PC deployments, the number of instances should be set to 1 and the number of users should be used to determine the number of repetitive installations.

APPLICATION Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Setup Type (Application) Type of setup required, relative to what may already be installed.

Item Description

New Installation New installation of an application.

Maintenance Release Very minor update of an application, generally accomplished with a patch. Little to no reconfiguration is required.

Enhancement Moderate update to an existing application, assumes the application is already installed/setup, but will require update.

Re-Development New installation of a re-engineered application.

Decommission Retirement of an existing application.

Applications The number of unique applications to be deployed and supported. If multiple identical instances of a single application are needed, use the Physical Locations/Instances input to indicate the number of instances.

This should be greater one if you are estimating effort associated with release, deployment and support of multiple applications.

Platform Type The type of platform on which the application is deployed. If the application is a client-server or multi-tier, describe the platform of the server.

PC Mobile Mainframe Embedded Midrange

Architecture The primary architecture of the application.

Standalone Client-Server Multi-Tier


Pa

Client Type The type of client used by the application. Used to determine end user setup.

Item Description

Thin A minimal client using the resources of the host computer. Typically, it just displays pictures provided by an application server, which does the bulk of the processing. Programming environments include JavaScript/AJAX (client side automation), ASP, JSP and PHP (server side HTML generation), and .NET ClickOnce.

Hybrid A mixture of the thin and fat client models. Similar to a fat client, it processes locally, but relies on the server for storage. This approach offers features from both the fat client (multimedia support, high performance) and the thin client (high manageability, flexibility).

Fat A fat client (also known as a thick client or rich client) is a client that performs the bulk of any data processing operations itself, and does not necessarily rely on the server. The fat client is most common in the form of a personal computer, as the PCs or laptops can operate independently. Programming environments for rich clients include Curl, Delphi, Droplets, Java, win32 and X11.

None No client used.

Application Size The complexity of the application in terms of its challenges to setup, configure and support. The functional size is not required, but serves a proxy to describe overall complexity.

Rating Description

Very High Very Complex (>10K Function Points).

High Complex (1K - 10K Function Points).

Nominal Average (up to 1K Function Points).

Low Simple (200 - 500 Function Points).

Very Low Basic and straightforward (<200 Function Points).

Distribution Technology The technology and methods used for distribution of the application client. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.


Rating Description

Very High Fully automated, unattended loads.

High Automated loads with silent installs, up to 20% failure rate.

Nominal Semi-automated load, silent install.

Low Administrator assisted install.

Very Low Manual install.

Origin The origin of the application that is being deployed.

Rating Description

In-house Developed and tested by an internal development team.

Vendor Supplied Developed to your specifications by a vendor.

COTS The application comes in a standard off-the-shelf configuration.

DATABASE Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Setup Type (Database) The type of setup required, relative to what may already be installed.

Item Description

New Installation Setup of a brand new database.

Minor Upgrade Update of an existing database with minor changes to the tables and/or fields.

Major Upgrade Update of an existing database that will include significant schema changes such as new tables and converted fields.

Migration Migration of a database from one DBMS version to another.

Decommission The retirement of an existing database, includes backup and transition.

New Databases Number of new databases that need to be set up to support the application.

Existing Databases Number of existing databases that will be used by the application.


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Modification Level The extent in which existing databases require modification. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Major changes to the database schema. Updates will require validation.

High Moderate changes to the database schema. Updates require validation.

Nominal Average changes to the database schema.

Low Minimal changes to the database schema. Most changes are new fields or tables.

Very Low Virtually no changes to the database schema and existing data.

Transaction Load The frequency and volume of database transactions. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High One per minute per user. Very high levels of concurrent transactions occurring throughout the operational day. Use of sophisticated load balancing tools.

High High levels of database transactions per user, up to one per minute, occurring regularly throughout the day.

Nominal Nominal levels of database transactions, fewer than one every two minutes per user. Occasional spikes in usage.

Low Low, fewer than 10 transactions an hour.

Very Low Minimal, fewer that one transaction per user per hour, concurrent use of network services. No special load balancing methods needed.

Reliability (Database) The required reliability and security requirements of the database. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Highest reliability and security considered. Public safety requirements.


High Major financial loss, compromising customer data, sensitive corporate information.

Nominal Moderate loss, recover without extreme penalty. Typical corporate security.

Low Low reliability, easily recoverable from loss.

Very Low No special considerations for reliability. A loss of the data would mean a slight inconvenience.

Database Replication Level Rates the level of replication used for this database. Replication occurs when there are multiple copies of the same database across different servers. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Complicated replication schemes used.

High Multi-master replication.

Nominal Master/slave replication.

Low Lazy replication.

Very Low No replication.

There are many schemes possible, but typically one database is designated as the master and database updates are written to the master. The master database will then be replicated to other databases which are typically used for read transactions. Replication is used sometimes to improve performance as it can distribute read/write transactions across multiple servers. It can also improve availability by having multiple databases available as a backup.

Tables The average number of tables per database.

Range Description

250 or more Very High.

76 - 249 High.

25-75 Nominal.

11-24 Low.

10 or fewer Very Low


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Data Migration Size GB of data that require data migration. Data migration efforts include extraction, conversion, cleansing and verification of data in the new system. Enter a size only if added effort data migration is required. Otherwise, leave this input at zero. Database modifications assume that there are scripts in place to upgrade existing data, with no data migration needed. Database migrations generally do not require added effort for data migration when going from one DBMS version to another. Data migration may be needed when moving between database vendors, or when there is a major system/application change and data requires considerable cleansing and verification in the new system.

User Setup Complexity Rates the degree and complexity required to set up database end users. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High User setup with complex security configuration plus the setup, test and validation of end-user connections.

High User setup plus the setup and test of end-user connections.

Nominal Basic setup plus more complex security configuration and validation.

Low Basic setup to add users/roles to the database and basic security configuration.

Very Low No end user setup required.

MIDDLEWARE/SERVICES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Setup Type (Middleware) The type of setup required, relative to what may already be installed.

Item Description

New Installation New installation of a middleware package.

Maintenance Release Very minor update of a service or package, generally accomplished with a patch. Little to no reconfiguration is required.

Enhancement Moderate update to an existing service or package, assumes the application is already installed/setup, but will require update.

Re-Development New installation of a re-engineered service or package.

Decommission Retirement of an existing service or package.


Middleware Number of unique middleware packages being deployed. Middleware includes things such as database access components, transaction monitors, or messaging systems. Also includes virtual machines.

Software Services Number of unique software services that need to be set up. Services are generally but are not necessarily considered part of the operating system. Services provide features such as web serving, event logging, file serving, printing, and error reporting.

Size The complexity of the middleware or software service in terms of its challenges to setup, configure and support. The functional size is not required, but serves a proxy to describe overall complexity.

Rating Description






Usage Load Rates the average load that the load that the middleware or services will be required to support. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Very high levels of concurrent user or system activity occurring throughout the operational day.

High High levels of concurrent user or system activity occurring regularly throughout the day.

Nominal Nominal levels of concurrent user or system activity for most of the day. Occasional spikes in usage.

Low Minimal levels of concurrent user or system activity occurring occasionally.

Very Low Little to no concurrent use of middleware or services.


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Reliability (Middleware) Rates the required reliability and security requirements of the middleware or services. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description


High Major financial loss, compromising customer data and/or sensitive corporate information.




End User Services Inputs

DESKTOPS/ NOTEBOOKS / MOBILE DEVICES / OTHER DEVICES Category headings; enter data in lower-level inputs. Inputs for these four categories are basically the same.

Setup Type Type of setup required relative to what may already be installed.

Item Description

New New installation from scratch.

Upgrade Existing installation, major upgrade. Includes hardware or OS upgrades that don't require major reconfiguration.

Migration Moving from one system type to another. Includes major OS changes or rehosting onto new hardware.

Decommission The removal of an existing system, including any required backup.

Desktop / Notebook / Mobile / Other Users Number of users to be set up and supported.


Unique Configurations Number of unique configurations being supported.

Experience Level Rates the experience the deployment team has with the end user systems. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Extensive experience with similar systems and technologies being used. 3 years or more years of experience with this system and vendor.

High Considerable experience with similar systems and technologies being used. 2 years average experience with this system and vendor.

Nominal Some experience with similar systems and technologies. 1 year average experience with this system and vendor.

Low Cursory experience with similar systems. 4 months average experience with this system and vendor.

Very Low No experience, fewer than 4 months.

Attrition Rate The annual percentage of systems expected to be lost from service due to breakage, loss, pilferage, or other accident.

Useful Life The number of months before a system is expected to be replace due to obsolescence, or the life during which it is expected to remain serviceable (except for minor maintenance), whichever is least. Leaving this input at 0 assumes that a system will have an indefinite useful life.

Desktop Systems Range Description

60 months+ Used as long as possible, slow performance of older machines not an issue.

36-48 months Typical for fixed computers in an office computing environment.

24 months Frequent replacements; harsh environments or where technology and performance is important.

0 No replacements assumed.


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Notebooks Range Description

48 months+ Used as long as possible, slow performance not an issue.

24-36 months Typical for notebooks that are not in a fixed location.

12 months Frequent replacements; harsh environments.


Mobile Devices Range Description

48 months+ Used as long as possible, slow performance/compatibility not an issue.

24-36 months Typical for devices in a relatively benign environment.

12 months Frequent replacements; harsh environments or heavy usage.


Scheduled Maintenance Interval Number of months between scheduled maintenance checks of the end user system hardware. Leave at 0 if no scheduled maintenance is planned.

Infrastructure Services Inputs Common Inputs The following inputs apply to both the SERVERS and NETWORKS categories:

Setup Type Type of setup required for server or network components relative to what is already installed.

Item Description

New New installation from scratch.

Upgrade Existing installation, major upgrade. Includes hardware or OS upgrades that don't require major reconfiguration.

Migration Moving from one system type to another. Includes major OS changes or rehosting onto new hardware.

Decommission The removal of an existing system, considering transition.


Experience Level Rates the experience the team has with the server or network systems. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Extensive experience with similar systems and technologies being used. 3 years or more years of experience with this system and vendor.

High Considerable experience with similar systems and technologies being used. 2 years average experience with this system and vendor.

Nominal Some experience with similar systems and technologies. 1 year average experience with this system and vendor.

Low Cursory experience with similar systems. 4 months average experience with this system and vendor.


Reliability Level Rates the required reliability requirements of the servers or network. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description


High Major financial loss, compromising customer data and/or sensitive corporate information.




Attrition Rate The annual percentage of servers or network components expected to be lost from service due to breakage, loss, pilferage, or other accident.


Pa

Useful Life The life (in months) after which a server or network component is expected to require replacement due to obsolescence, or, the life during which the server is expected to remain serviceable (except for minor maintenance), whichever is least. Leaving this input at 0 will assume that server or network components will have an indefinite useful life.

Useful Life Ranges for Servers Range Description

72 months+ Used as long as possible, slow performance of older machines not an issue.

48-60 months Typical for servers in a data center.

36 months Frequent replacements, possible for servers in harsh environments or where technology and performance is important.


Scheduled Maintenance Interval Number of months between scheduled maintenance checks of the server or network hardware. Leave at 0 if no scheduled maintenance is planned.

SERVERS Category heading; the following inputs are unique to this category.

Servers Number of physical servers to be setup and/or supported. Count towers, racks, blades, as well as mainframes. For mainframes, count each processor as a server. Do not count virtual servers which are modeled using the Software/Database Services element.

Unique Configurations Number of unique configurations being supported.

Configuration Complexity Rates the overall complexity of the servers and systems to be set up and supported. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Custom and complex configurations.

High Semi-custom configurations.

Nominal Standard configurations.


Low Simple configurations.

Very Low Basic configurations.

Server Virtualization Level The level of virtualization used in the servers being modeled.

Rating Description

Very High Very high levels of virtualization. More than 2 OS instances per physical server.

High High levels of virtualization, about 1.8-2 OS instances per physical server.

Nominal Nominal use of virtualization, about 1.5 – 1.8 OS instances per physical server.

Low Minimal levels of virtualization, fewer than 1.5 OS instances per physical server.

Very Low No virtualization is used.

Use the formula (PhysicalServers + VMs)/PhysicalServers if you want to compute OS instances per physical server. In this case, PhysicalServers will be the input for servers. The server virtualization level parameter accounts for the increased productivity observed in when higher levels of virtualization are used. This parameter does not capture the setup, support and administration of the VMs themselves. Virtual Machines are considered to be "soft" infrastructure and the modeling of setup and support for virtual machines is done with the Software/Database Services element of SEER-IT.

Storage Devices The number of storage devices separate from the local server storage that require setup and configuration.

Storage Complexity The complexity of the storage devices being configured. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High RAID SAN. Storage area network in a redundant array of independent disks.

High Storage area network (SAN). SAN interface to the server systems in such a way that the storage appears to be local.


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Nominal RAID NAS. Network attached storage configured in a redundant array of independent disks for increased reliability and recoverability.

Low Network attached storage (NAS). A server will recognize NAS as remote storage.

Very Low Removable media.

NETWORK Category heading; the following inputs are unique to this category.

Modems/Outside Lines Number of modems installed as part of the network. A modem is a device that converts digital and analog signals. Modems allow computer data (digital) to be transmitted over voice-grade telephone lines (analog).

Routers Number of routers installed as part of the network. A router is a device that routes information between interconnected networks. It can select the best path for a message and translate information from one network to another. A router is more sophisticated than a simple bridge.

Bridges Number of bridges installed as part of the network. A bridge is a device that connects and passes packets between two network segments that use the same communications protocol.

Switches Number of switches installed as part of the network. Sometimes referred to as a hub, a switch is a device that connects multiple devices together into a single network segment.

Repeaters Number of repeaters installed as part of the network. A repeater is a device used in a network to strengthen a signal as it is passed along the network cable.

Access Points Number of access points installed as part of the network. An access point is a device that connects wireless communication devices to a network.

Printers Number of printers-type devices points installed as part of the network. This could include traditional printers, copier/printers, or other multi-function printing devices.


Firewalls/Security Devices Number of hardware firewalls or security devices such as UTM appliances installed as part of the network.

System Complexity Rates the overall complexity of the network configuration to be set up and supported. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Custom and complex configurations.

High Semi-custom configurations.

Nominal Standard configurations.

Low Simple configurations.

Very Low Basic configurations.

NETWORK USAGE Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Users Supported Number of users supported by the network and servers. For an internal system, this typically would relate to the number of employees supported. For an external system, such as a website, it would be the number of users.

Network Load Level Rates the average load that the network will be required to support. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Very high levels of concurrent transactions occurring throughout the operational day. Use of sophisticated load balancing tools.

High High levels of concurrent transactions regularly throughout the day.

Nominal Nominal levels of concurrent transactions for most of the day. Occasional spikes in usage. Use of standard load balancing tools.

Low Minimal levels of concurrent transactions occurring occasionally.

Very Low Little to no concurrent use of network services. No special load balancing methods needed.


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Physical Locations Number of physical locations in which servers will be installed. Servers in different buildings on a single office campus are considered different physical locations. Servers located in the same building that are separated by different floors or more than 50 feet on the same floor should be considered different physical locations.

Facilities Inputs CABLING Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Data Ports Number of data ports that require cable installation.

Voice Ports Number of ports to be used for voice communications that require cable installation.

Floors Number of floors into which cables are installed.

Average Horizontal Cable Length Average length in of a horizontal cable. Depending on the unit of measure setting in the project parameters, this input is expressed in either feet or meters.

Horizontal Cable Type Type of cable being used to connect between the equipment room and the port. This is generally on a single level.

• CAT 5 • CAT 5e • CAT 6 • Multi-Mode Fiber • Single-Mode Fiber

Vertical Cable Type Type of cable being used to connect between a main equipment room and equipment on each floor. Sometimes called a riser cable. See Horizontal Cable Type for selection.

Installation Difficulty The level of difficulty posed by the facility in which cabling is being installed. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.


Rating Description

Very High Solid walls and hard ceilings with no existing outlet or cable pathways. Also includes buildings with historical architecture that may require special processes to install cable.

High Solid or hollow walls with no existing wall outlet or one that is at maximum capacity requiring a new location and materials. Drop or open ceiling.

Nominal Hollow walls, open ceilings, existing outlets.

Low Wall with existing outlet in a "fishable" hollow wall or solid walls with surface mounted system and sufficient capacity for additional cabling. Drop ceiling or open ceiling architecture with cable support.

Very Low Wall with existing outlet and conduit to the overhead cable distribution system, drop ceiling construction. This could include new or recently renovated buildings.

Port Density Number of ports per drop location, generally relates to the number of people per office.

FACILITY BUILDOUT Category heading; inputs for this category have the same basic description.

Office Space / Computing Facility / Network/Telecom Room Size The size of the office space, computing facilities, network/telecom rooms requiring build-out. Depending on the unit of measure setting in the project parameters, this input is expressed in either square feet or square meters. If no construction costs are needed, leave this input as zero.

UTILITIES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Power Cost Per Month Utility cost per month for electrical power.

Other Utility Cost Per Month Utility cost per month for other utilities such as gas or water.

TELECOM/DATA SERVICES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.


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Telecom Service Cost Per Month Cost per month for other telecommunications services.

Data Services Cost Per Month Cost per month for other data services, if not part of telecommunications services.

Leased Line Cost Per Month Cost per month for private leased lines.

SUPPLIES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Supplies Cost Per Month Cost per month for office supplies such as paper, printer supplies, CDs, etc.

OTHER SERVICES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Services Cost Per Month Cost per month for any other services such as security or building maintenance fees.

Training Inputs TRAINING REQUIREMENTS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Courseware Development Required Yes/No to indicate if courseware development needs to be part of the estimate.

Courseware Modification The degree of modification needed if existing courseware is available and can be used as a basis of the new courseware requirement.

Rating Description

New Courseware Brand new, no existing materials.

Minor Update Basic updates to account for minor changes in functionality and minor improvements.

Average Update Updates to address moderate feature updates.

Major Update Major updates for major new version or significant revamp of the course.


Training Type Select the type of training that needs to be developed.

Type Description

Process Training to learn a new process. This type of training is limited in scope and would nominally run for a ½ day.

Application Training to learn a new application. This type of training is nominally one workday in length, but can be longer based on the application’s size and importance to the user’s job function.

Orientation Comprehensive training to introduce someone to the overall department or company and all processes related to their job function. This type of training is nominally 3 working days.

Topic Complexity Complexity of the topic addressed by the application. This input is used in part to determine the hours required to develop courseware. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Very Difficult.

High Hard.

Nominal Average.

Low Simple.

Very Low Very Simple.

Training Formality Type and formality of training course. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Traditional classroom with hands-on case study work.

High Traditional classroom lecture, no hands-on work.

Nominal Facilitated online course.

Low Self-directed and self-paced training such as online.

Very Low Ad-hoc, informal.


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Training Technology The format course and level of technology used. This input is used to determine hour many students can be accommodated by a training event and will impact the courseware development effort. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Highly interactive CBT with dynamic student feedback/evaluation.

High+ Interactive CBT.

High Self-directed and self-paced CBT such as online.

Nominal Role playing/simulation.

Low Classroom setting with hands on case study.

Very Low+ Traditional classroom lecture incorporating audio or video (pre-produced).

Very Low Traditional classroom lecture, no hands-on work.

Training Course Metrics (Optional) The following optional metric inputs can be used for informational purposes, or to modify an estimate. By default, they have a computed value, which you can overwrite. Inputs that are currently set to use computed values will appear in <<double brackets and use purple text>>. To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

Course Hours This value represents the number of hours in a given run of a training class. The default value is computed, and is based on Training Type, and Application Size (if applicable).

USERS/TRAINEES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Number of Users/Trainees The number of users supported by the application that would potentially require training. Leave this input at zero if you do not need to include the time that users or trainees need to spend in the classroom.

User Classification The labor category classification of the users being trained. This selection will determine which labor rates are applied when computing the cost of the trainees.


User Turnover The percentage of new users each year. This input is used to determine the number of users requiring training during ongoing support. As turnover increases, the number of users requiring training during ongoing support will increase.

Training Metrics (Optional) The following optional metric inputs can be used for informational purposes, or to modify an estimate. By default, they have a computed value, which you can overwrite. Inputs that are currently set to use computed values will appear in <<double brackets and use purple text>>.

To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

Percent of Users Trained This value represents the percentage of total users that will actually go through training. The default value is computed, and is based on the Application Use Intensity.

Students Per Instructor This value presents the number of students that can be accommodated in a single training class. The default value is computed, and is based on the Training Formality and Training Type parameters.

APPLICATION Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Applications The number of applications for which courseware needs to be developed. This input is relevant only when Training Type is Application. This should be greater than one if you are estimating effort associated with courseware development of multiple applications.

Application Size The complexity of the application. This input is used in part to determine length of the training course required. The functional size is not required, but serves a proxy to describe overall complexity.

Rating Description







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Use Intensity Frequency of use of the application. This input is used in part to determine length of the training course required. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Application is used daily and is critical to the user's job function.

High Application is used often but is not critical to the user's job function.

Nominal Application is used weekly or is not critical to the user's job function.

Low Application is used occasionally, not key to the user's job function.

Very Low Application is used infrequently and is not key to the user's job function.

TRAINING MATERIALS COST Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Non-Recurring Training Material Cost Any one-time purchases required to support training. This could include costs for things like projectors, video cameras, microphones.

Training Materials Cost Per Class Costs per training class or event for such things like publishing training materials, refreshments, or renting facilities.

PURCHASED TRAINING Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Purchased Training Classes The number of purchased training classes.

Cost Per Purchased Class The cost of the purchased class.

Instructor Cost Per Class If not included in the purchase cost of the class, any costs for instructor fees such as travel expenses.

Hours Per Class The duration in hours for the purchased training class.


Trainees Per Class The number of trainees that can be accommodated per purchased course. Leave this input at zero if you don't need to account for the time users spend in training.

Trainee Classification The labor category classification of the users being trained. This selection will determine which labor rates are applied when computing the cost of the trainees.

Service Desk Inputs SERVICE DESK Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Coverage Requirements This is a parameter category.

Coverage Requirements inputs determine the number of hours, days, and shifts that must be available to users. The coverage hours/day and days/week determine when a service desk needs to be open and available to address user incidents. However, the actual demand on the service desk in terms of number of incidents is determined by the number of users and applications (application support) or the number of systems or devices (system support).

Coverage Hours/Day Number of hours per day that the service desk must be available to users. Coverage Hours/Day ranges from 8 to 24.

Coverage Days/Week The number of works days per week that the service desk must be available to users.

Coverage Days/Week ranges from 5 to 7.

Staff Shifts/Day The number of service desk staff shifts per day, ranging from 1 to 4.

The default value is computed, and is based on the ratio of Coverage Hours/Day to Staff Work Hours/Day, rounded up. To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

Support Staff Work Profile This is a parameter category.


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Staff Work Profile inputs determine the number of hours, days, and shifts worked by service desk staff.

Staff Work Hours/Day The hours worked per day or shift for service desk staff, ranging from 6 to 12.

The default is 8 hours.

Staff Work Days/Week The number of workdays per week for service desk staff, ranging from 3 to 6. The default is 5 days.

Utilization An optional input based on the percentage of a work day that is utilized by service desk staff used for directly addressing calls or incidents. Utilization will factor in unplanned activity, time for meetings or other non-direct efforts. The default is 70%.

To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

SVT Rate An optional input for the percentage of time allocated to Sick, Vacation and Training.

The default is 15%. To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

APPLICATION SUPPORT Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Number of Users The number of application users that the service desk needs to support. If the number of applications is greater than 1, make sure this input represents the average number of users per application. SEER-IT nominally assumes each application user will have one service desk incident every 9 months. The frequency of incidents will change with the Application Complexity, User Training Level, and Use Intensity.

Applications The number of applications for that need to be supported by the service desk. Leave this input at zero if you do not need to estimate the service desk effort relating to software applications. It should be greater than one if you are estimating effort associated with supporting multiple applications.


Application Complexity The overall complexity of the application being supported. This should take into account both the difficulty of the application and its size or range of features that need to be supported. The table below gives guidelines on how to rate this parameter based on program size and application difficulty. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Very difficult application or very large size.

High Hard application and large size.

Nominal Average application or average size.

Low Simple application or small size.

Very Low Very simple application or very small size.

Use Intensity Frequency of use of the application. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Application is used daily and is critical to the user's job function.

High Application is used often but is not critical to the user's job function.

Nominal Application is used weekly or is not critical to the user's job function.

Low Application is used occasionally and is not key to the user's job function.

Very Low Application is used infrequently and is not key to the user's job function.

User Training Level The degree to which users have received training for the application that requires support. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Majority of the users have received some sort of formal classroom training with hands-on exercises.

High Majority of the users have received some sort of formal classroom training.

Nominal Short course presentation, typically less than one day.


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Low Informal and ad-hoc training.

Very Low No training has been provided.

Support Staff Resources Choice indicating which of the service desk personnel are shared with other applications or systems, or are required to be dedicated to the applications or end user systems defined in this element.

Rating Description

Shared Estimates the incremental staff level for an existing service desk. Coverage requirements will not impact effort.

Dedicated New or standalone service desk function. The Dedicated option will estimate service desk staff to the nearest full time equivalent for each shift that needs to be covered.

Staff Capability Overall team capability. Ratings may be modified by plus or minus.

Rating Description

Very High Extensive experience with similar systems and technologies. 3 years or more of experience with this application and/or system.

High Considerable experience with similar systems and technologies being used. 2 years average experience with this application and/or system.

Nominal Some experience with similar systems and technologies. 1 year average experience with this application and/or system.

Low Cursory experience with similar systems. 4 months average experience with this application and/or system.


Service Level Agreement (Application Support) Service level target benchmark for application support, often measured as a percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe. Note that specific targets and SLA levels vary widely depending on the industry and the nature of the help desk. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Acknowledged within 15 minutes and fixed within 2 hours (Gold).


High Acknowledged within 1 hour and fixed within 4 hours.

Nominal Acknowledged within 4 hours and fixed within 8 hours (Silver).

Low Acknowledged within 24 hours and fixed within 48 hours (Bronze).

Very Low Acknowledged within 2 business days and fixed within 5 business days (Basic).

Application / End User System Support Metrics (Optional) The following optional metric inputs can be used for informational purposes, or to modify an estimate. By default, they have a computed value, which you can overwrite. Inputs that are currently set to use computed values will appear in <<double brackets and use purple text>>. To overwrite a computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

Monthly Incident Rate This is the expected value of application driven incidents or calls to the service desk that can be expected in any given calendar month. APPLICATION SUPPORT: The default value is computed, and is based on a nominal incident rate, Number of Users, Applications, Application Complexity, User Training and Use Intensity inputs. END USER SYSTEM SUPPORT: The default value is computed, and is based on a nominal incident rate (by device type), Number of Users (by device type), and System Complexity inputs.

Average Incident Resolution Time (minutes) This is the average time in minutes that an incident is resolved.

APPLICATION SUPPORT: The default value is computed, and is based on a nominal resolution time, Application Complexity, Service Level Agreement, and Staff Capability inputs. END USER SYSTEM SUPPORT: The default value is computed, and is based on a nominal resolution time, System Complexity, Service Level Agreement, and Staff Capability inputs.

Weekly Incident Distribution / Daily Incident Distribution These inputs will set up assumptions on how service desk incidents are distributed throughout the week or over different shifts in a workday. The Coverage Days/Week and Coverage Hours/Day inputs (under the SERVICE DESK / Coverage Requirements heading) will drive the default allocation and set up the number of work days or shifts respectively to be allocated. Each field represents the percentage of incidents that will occur on the given weekday or shift. This input can be used to accommodate anticipated spikes or lulls in service desk calls.


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The total of all incident percentages must add up to 100%. If it does not, and you click on OK to exit the input dialog box, the program will give you the choice of automatically normalizing the values or re-entering them. You can also click on the Normalize button to redistribute the percentages proportionally.

The Uniform button will spread all calls evenly throughout the week or throughout all shifts. Note that changes in the incident distribution will not change the effort estimate unless Support Staff Resources is set to Dedicated.

SYSTEM SUPPORT Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Desktops The number of desktop systems that require support.

Notebooks The number of notebook systems that require support.

Mobile Devices The number of mobile devices that require support.

Other Devices The number of other devices that require support.

Servers Number of physical servers requiring tier 1 support. Count towers, racks, blades, as well as mainframes. For mainframes, count each processor as a server. Do not count virtual servers which are modeled using the Software/Database Services element.

Storage Devices Number of storage devices separate from the local server storage that require tier 1 support.

Modems/Outside Lines Number of modems installed as part of the network that require tier 1 support.

Routers Number of routers that require tier 1 support.

Bridges Number of bridges that require tier 1 support.

Switches Number of switches that require tier 1 support.


Repeaters Number of repeaters that require tier 1 support.

Access Points Number of access points that require tier 1 support.

Printers Number of printers that require tier 1 support.

Firewalls/Security Devices Number of firewalls/security devices that require tier 1 support.

System Complexity Overall complexity of the supported systems. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Very Difficult.

High Hard.

Nominal Average.

Low Simple.

Very Low Very Simple.

Support Staff Resources See Support Staff Resources under APPLICATION SUPPORT.

Support Staff Capability See Support Staff Capability under APPLICATION SUPPORT.

Service Level Agreement (System Support) See Service Level Agreement under APPLICATION SUPPORT.

System Support Metrics (Optional) See Application Support Metrics (Optional) under APPLICATION SUPPORT.

Additional Items Inputs The Additional Items work element allows you to create an Additional Item as a separate work element. It includes all of the standard Additional Items inputs, along with the Probability input and the Wraps category of Economic Factors inputs.


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It also includes the following special category of inputs, used only by the Additional Items work element:

LOCAL QUANTITIES LOCAL QUANTITIES is a parameter category heading. In an Additional Items work element, Local Quantities operate much like global quantities do at the project level. The scope of a Local Quantity, however, is limited to the Additional Items work element to which it was added. If you want to apply a Local Quantity to Additional Items in more than one work element, you can either add that quantity separately to the other work elements, or consolidate the Additional Items into a single work element, or (depending on the nature of the quantities and the project that you are estimating), use a global, rather than a Local Quantity.

When you add a Local Quantity and enter its value, you will then be able to automatically apply that value to any Additional Item that you create as part of the work element.

To add a Local Quantity, double-click on Add Next Local Quantity. You can add the following local-quantity versions of standard Additional Items quantities, as well as up to 50 Custom Local Quantities:

Quantity (Local) Sets the default value for the Quantity input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.

Hourly Labor Rate (Local) Sets the default value for the Hourly Labor Rate input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.

Labor Hours (Local) Sets the default value for the Labor Hours input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.

Material Cost (Local) Sets the default value for the Material Cost input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.

Start Date (Local) Sets the default value for the Start Date input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.

Duration (Local) Sets the default value for the Duration input in any Additional Item that you create for this work element.


Custom You can create up to 50 custom Local Quantities. Each Custom Local Quantity can represent an individual cost factor unique to your project, and which cannot be represented by the standard Additional Items inputs. For common Additional items inputs, see Common Inputs / Additional Items

User Documentation Inputs APPLICATION Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Applications The number of applications for which documentation needs to be developed. This can also be used for processes or services that need to be documented.

Project Type The type of writing and editing required, relative to what may already be installed.

Rating Description

New New project with no existing user documentation.

Major Update Major updates to existing documentation, with up to a 50% change/ addition to content. Assumes organization, styles and format remain largely intact.

Moderate Update Moderate change to existing documentation, with less than 20% change/addition to content. Assumes organization, styles and format remain intact.

Minor Update Very minor changes to existing user documentation, changes/ additions less than 5% of existing content.

Application Size The complexity of the application being documented. This input is used in part to determine scope of the application documentation requirements. The functional size is not required, but serves a proxy to describe overall complexity.

Rating Description





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Application Volatility The amount of change that the application will undergo during the documentation project. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Frequent moderate and frequent major changes, which may include revisions that fundamentally alter its use, requiring significant documentation rework.

High Frequent moderate & occasional major changes requiring significant changes to the documentation.

Nominal Occasional moderate changes that require moderate documentation changes.

Low Small noncritical changes that won’t significantly impact the documentation being developed, but will need to be addressed by the documentation.

Very Low Essentially no changes, the application is baselined and not expected to change during the course of the documentation project.

Application Availability The availability of the functional application to the documentation team. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Representative builds or a prototype of the application is made available early in the documentation cycle.

High Early builds or prototypes available, but with minimal functionality.

Nominal Semi-functional prototypes and mockups available to the documentation team.

Low Non-functioning mockups available to the documentation team.

Very Low The application is not available to the documentation team. Documentation must be developed mainly from specifications.


DOCUMENTATION REQUIREMENTS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Document Type The type of documentation that needs to be developed.

• Introduction Guide • User Guide • Reference Manual • Quick Reference/Getting Started • Context Sensitive Help • Comprehensive Help • Maintenance/Troubleshooting Manual

Completeness The completeness of the finished product in terms of editing, proofing, indexes, cross references, etc. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Best in class documentation, comprehensive examples, indexes, cross references, proofed and copyedited.

High High quality documentation validated against the application including examples, indexed, spell checked, copyedited.

Nominal Good quality documentation, indexed, spell checked, proofed and copyedited. Descriptions verified against the application.

Low Basic documentation with spell and grammar checks. May include a simple index.

Very Low Documentation that meets minimal quality standards, typically spell check and basic grammar check. No index, examples, or cross references.

Production Value The overall professional look and polish of the final printed product. If the documentation is not to be printed, this parameter should be set to very low. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Printed, color, extensive artwork required.

High Printed, some color, some artwork.


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Nominal Printed, no color, basic artwork.

Low Printed monochrome text, no new artwork.

Very Low Electronic format only.

Document Metrics (Optional) The following optional metric inputs can be used for informational purposes, or to modify an estimate. By default, they have a computed value, which you can overwrite. Inputs that are currently set to use computed values will appear in <<double brackets and use purple text>>. To overwrite the computed value, uncheck the Use computed value checkbox in the parameter input dialog box, then enter a new value for the input.

Effective Pages This value represents the effective number of pages of documentation that must be produced. The default value is computed, and is based on the Document Type, Application Size, Number of Applications and the Completeness.

Planning Hours Per Page The number of hours per Effective Page spent for planning the documentation effort. The planning effort is assigned to the Analysis activity. The default value is computed, and is based on nominal hours per page, Application Volatility, Information Availably and Application Domain Experience parameters.

Content Specification Hours Per Page The number of hours per Effective Page spent specifying what content needs to be covered for the documentation effort. The content specification effort is assigned to the Design activity. The default value is computed, and is based on nominal hours per page, Application Volatility, Information Availably, Application Availability, Domain Expertise Availability, and Application Domain Experience parameters.

Writing Hours Per Page The number of hours per Effective Page spent for spent writing and editing the content. The writing effort is assigned to the Construction activity. The default value is computed, and is based on nominal hours per page, Application Volatility, Information Availably, Application Availability, Domain Expertise Availability, and Application Domain Experience, Application Domain Complexity, Best Practices Use and Writing Experience parameters.

Production Hours Per Page The number of hours per Effective Page spent for spent on document production not related to writing and editing. The production effort is assigned to the Construction activity. The


default value is computed, and is based on nominal hours per page, Production Value, and Application Volatility parameters.

PROJECT CONSTRAINTS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Information Availability Availability of information about the application, beyond the application itself, that provides the writing team information on the purpose and meaning of the application features. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Complete well written specs, requirements documents, and other materials that convey the purpose and meaning of application features.

High Good specs and requirements documents, but not much beyond that.

Nominal Some specification and requirements materials available to convey the application's purpose and meaning.

Low Some documentation available, but mostly for technical development details, doesn't provide much understanding of the application's purpose or intent.

Very Low Essentially no documentation describing the intent and purpose of the application, typical of an informal or ad-hoc development project.

Domain Expertise Availability The availability of domain subject matter experts to the writing team. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Technical expertise is readily available to the documentation team.

High Technical expertise is moderately available, probably requiring some lead time to arrange a meeting.

Nominal Technical expertise can be made available to the documentation team on a limited time basis.

Low Minimal technical expertise available.

Very Low No specialized technical expertise made available.


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Best Practices Use The timeliness and completeness of reviews and technical inspection of the documentation being developed. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Thorough, complete and timely reviews.

High Regular reviews.

Nominal Regular basic reviews.

Low Some reviews of material, hard to predict when they will occur.

Very Low No reviews.

Writing/Design Experience The writing and design experience of the technical writing team in similar project types. Consider the type of project (e.g. documenting a process, preparing online help) as well as general writing experience. Ratings may be modified by plus or minus.

Rating Description

Very High Extensive experience with similar project types, 4+ years.

High Considerable experience with similar project types, 3 years.

Nominal Some experience with similar document project types, 2 years.

Low Cursory experience with document project types, 1 year.

Very Low Essentially no experience, less than 4 months.

Application Domain Experience The documentation team’s experience in the domain of the applications or processes being documented. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Extensive domain experience, 10+ years.

High Considerable domain experience, 6 years.

Nominal Moderate domain experience, 3 years

Low Limited domain experience, 1 year.

Very Low Essentially no domain experience, less than 4 months.


Application Domain Complexity The overall complexity of application or process being documented. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Difficult.

High Hard.

Nominal Average.

Low Simple.

Very Low Very simple.

PRINTING COSTS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Printing Cost Per Unit The cost per unit to print a finished, fully copyedited document. Physical printing is often outsourced and a unit cost can be provided by a vendor.

Units Printed The number of units that require printing.

Architecture/Design Inputs System Requirements Category heading, with separate inputs for easy, nominal, difficult.

Easy/ Nominal / Difficult System Requirements Represents the number of requirements for the system-of-interest at a specific level of design. The quantity of requirements includes those related to the effort for system engineering the system interfaces, system specific algorithms, and operational scenarios. Requirements may be functional, performance, feature, or service-oriented in nature depending on the methodology used for specification. They may also be defined by the customer or contractor. Each requirement may have effort associated with is such as V&V, functional decomposition, functional allocation, etc. System requirements can typically be quantified by counting the number of applicable shalls/wills/shoulds/mays in the system or marketing specification. Note: some work is involved in decomposing requirements so that they may be counted at the appropriate system-of-interest. See: Reuse Categories, below.


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Easy Nominal Difficult

Simple to implement Familiar Complex to implement / engineer

Traceable to source Can be traced with effort Hard to trace to source

Little requirements overlap Some overlap High degree of overlap

Easy/ Nominal / Difficult System Interfaces The number of shared physical and logical boundaries between system components or functions (internal interfaces) and those external to the system (external interfaces). These interfaces typically can be quantified by counting the number of external and internal system interfaces among ISO/IEC 15288-defined system elements. See: Reuse Categories, below.


Simple message Moderate complexity Complex protocol(s)

Uncoupled Loosely coupled Highly coupled

Strong consensus Moderate consensus Low consensus

Well behaved Predictable behavior Poorly behaved

Easy/ Nominal / Difficult Business Rules The number of newly defined or significantly altered functions that require unique mathematical algorithms to achieve the performance requirements. As an example, this could include a complex aircraft tracking algorithm like a Kalman Filter being derived using existing experience as the basis for the all aspect search function. Another example could be a new discrimination algorithm being derived to identify friend or foe function in space-based applications. To quantify, count unique algorithms needed to realize the requirements specified in the system specification or mode description document. See: Reuse Categories, below.


Algebraic Straightforward calculus Complex constrained optimization

Straightforward structure Nested structure w/ decision logic

Recursive in structure

Timing not an issue Timing a constraint Dynamic, timing and uncertainty issues

Adaptation of library-based Some modeling involved Simulation & modeling


Easy/ Nominal / Difficult Operational Scenarios Represents the number of operational scenarios that a system must satisfy. Such scenarios include both the nominal stimulus-response thread plus all of the off-nominal threads resulting from bad or missing data, unavailable processes, network connections, or other exception-handling cases. The number of scenarios can typically be quantified by counting the number of system test thread packages or unique end-to-end tests used to validate the system functionality and performance or by counting the number of use cases, including off-nominal extensions, developed as part of the operational architecture. See: Reuse Categories, below.


Well defined Ill defined Loosely defined

Loosely coupled Moderately coupled Tightly coupled, or many dependencies

Timelines not an issue Timelines a constraint Tight timelines through scenario network

Few/simple off-nominal threads

Moderate number of threads Many off-nominal threads

Reuse Categories Reuse categories apply to the following parameter categories: System Requirements, System Interfaces, Business Rules, and Operational Scenarios. The Easy, Nominal, and Difficult subcategories for each if these categories are divided into the following parameters:

Category Description

New Items that are completely new. (1.0)

Designed for Reuse Requires an additional upfront investment to improve potential reusability. (1.38)

Modified Inherited, but are tailored. (0.63)

Deleted Removed from the system. (0.51)

Adopted Incorporated unmodified, but requiring verification. (0.43)

Managed Incorporated unmodified, with minimal testing. (0.15)

The number in parenthesis after each reuse category description is that category's weight. The weight is a multiplier; SEER-IT uses it to convert effort in that category into equivalent new effort.


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PROBLEM AND SOLUTION UNDERSTANDING Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Requirements Understanding Level of understanding of the system requirements by all stakeholders including the systems, software, hardware, customers, team members, users, etc. Primary sources of added systems engineering effort are unprecedented systems, unfamiliar domains, or systems whose requirements are emergent with use. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Full understanding of requirements, familiar system.

High Strong: few undefined areas.

Nominal Reasonable: some undefined areas.

Low Minimal: many undefined areas.

Very Low Poor: emergent requirements or unprecedented system.

Architecture Understanding Relative difficulty of determining and managing the system architecture in terms of platforms, standards, components (COTS/GOTS/NDI/new), connectors (protocols), and constraints. This includes tasks like systems analysis, tradeoff analysis, modeling, simulation, case studies, etc. Ratings may be modified by a plus or a minus.

Rating Description

Very High Full understanding of architecture, familiar system and COTS.

High Strong understanding of architecture and COTS, few unfamiliar areas.

Nominal Reasonable architecture and COTS understanding , some unfamiliar areas.

Low Minimal architecture and COTS understanding , many unfamiliar areas.

Very Low Poor understanding of architecture and COTS, unprecedented system.

Technology Risk Maturity, readiness, and obsolescence of the technology. Immature or obsolescent technology requires more Systems Engineering effort. The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project when considering their possible impact.


Lack of Maturity Rating Description

Very High Still in the laboratory.

High Ready for pilot use.

Nominal Proven on pilot projects & ready to roll-out for production jobs.

Low Proven through actual use and ready for widespread adoption.

Very Low Technology proven & widely used throughout industry.

Lack of Readiness Rating Description

Very High Concept defined (TRL 3 & 4).

High Proof of concept validated (TRL 5 & 6)

Nominal Concept has been demonstrated (TRL 7)).

Low Concept qualified (TRL 8).

Very Low Mission proven (TRL 9).

Obsolescence Rating Description

Very High Technology outdated, use to be avoided in new systems; spare parts scarce.

High Technology stale; new and better technology is on the horizon in the near-term.

Nominal State-of-the-practice technology; emerging technology could compete later on.

Design Decomposition Complexity The number of levels of design related to the system-of-interest (as defined by ISO/IEC 15288) and the amount of required Systems Engineering effort for each level.

Rating Levels Required SE Effort

Very High >7 Extremely complex interdependencies coordination, trade-off analysis.

High 6-7 Very complex interdependencies coordination and trade-off analysis.


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Nominal 3-5 More complex interdependencies coordination and trade-off analysis.

Low 2 Some vertical and horizontal coordination.

Very Low 1 Focused on single product.

PRODUCT AND SYSTEM COMPLEXITY Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Complexity of Performance Measures Difficulty and criticality of satisfying the ensemble of level of service requirements, such as security, safety, response time, interoperability, maintainability, Key Performance Parameters (KPPs), the “ilities”, etc.

Rating Difficulty Criticality

Very High Very complex, tightly coupled KPPs.

Risk to human life.

High Difficult, coupled KPPs. High financial loss.

Nominal Moderately complex, coupled KPPs.

Some loss

Low Low, some coupling among KPPs. Easily recoverable losses.

Very Low Simple, single dominant KPP. Slight inconvenience.

Migration Complexity Extent to which the legacy system affects the migration complexity, if any. Legacy system components, databases, workflows, environments, etc., may affect the new system implementation due to new technology introductions, planned upgrades, increased performance, business process reengineering, etc. The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project when considering their possible impact.

Legacy Contractor Rating Description

Extra High Original contractor out of business; no documentation available.

Very High Different contractor; limited documentation.

High Original development team not available; most documentation is.

Nominal Original team largely available; legacy system well documented.


Effect of Legacy System on New System Rating Description

Extra High Migration related to integration, development, architecture, design.

Very High Migration is related to integration and development.

High Migration is restricted to integration only.

Nominal Everything is new; legacy system completely replaced or non-existent.

Documentation Level The formality and detail of documentation required to be formally delivered based on the life cycle needs of the system. The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project being estimated when considering their possible impact.

Formality Rating Description

Very High Rigorous, follows strict standards and requirements.

High Partially streamlined process, largely standards-driven.

Nominal Risk-driven degree of formality.

Low Broad guidance, flexibility is allowed.

Very Low General goals, stories.

Effect of Legacy System on New System Rating Description

Very High Extensive documentation, review requirements relative to life cycle needs; multiple revisions required.

High High amounts of documentation, more rigorous relative to life cycle needs; some revisions required.

Nominal Documentation and reviews consistent with life cycle needs.

Low Easy documentation, review requirements relative to life cycle needs.

Very Low Minimal or no specified documentation and review requirements relative to life cycle needs.


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Installations/Platforms Diversity The number of different platforms that the system will be hosted and installed on. The complexity in the operating environment (space, sea, land, fixed, mobile, portable, information assurance/security). For example, in a wireless network, the number of unique installation sites and the number of and types of fixed clients, mobile clients, and servers. Number of platforms being implemented should be added to the number being phased out (dual count). The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project being estimated when considering their possible impact.

Sites/Installations Rating Description

Extra High >6 sites or diverse installation configurations.

Very High 4-5 sites or diverse installation configurations

High 2-3 sites or diverse installation configurations.

Nominal Single installation site or configuration.

Operating Environment Rating Description

Extra High Harsh environment; sensitive information security reqs; coordination b/w 3+ regulatory agencies.

Very High Rugged mobile land-based reqs; some information security reqs; coordination b/w 1 or 2 agencies.

High Moderate environmental constraints; controlled environment (i.e., A/C, electric).

Nominal Existing facility meets all known environmental operating reqs.

Platforms Rating Description

Extra High >10 types; heterogeneous, incompatible platforms; mix of protocols; multiple OS.

Very High 8-10 types; heterogeneous but compatible platforms; mix of protocols; single OS.


High 4-7 types; compatible platforms; single industry standard protocol; multiple OS.

Nominal <3 types; homogeneous platforms; single industry standard protocol.

PERSONNEL AND TEAM CAPABILITIES Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Stakeholder Team Cohesion Multi-attribute parameter which includes leadership, shared vision, diversity of stakeholders, approval cycles, group dynamics, IPT framework, team dynamics, and amount of change in responsibilities. It represents the heterogeneity in stakeholder community of the end users, customers, implementers, and development team.

Rating Description

Very High Near Perfect Functioning Team (90th Percentile).

High Extraordinary (75th Percentile).

Nominal Functional and Effective (55th Percentile).

Low Functional with Low Effectiveness (35th Percentile).

Very Low Poorly Functioning Team (15th Percentile).

Personnel/Team Capability Basic intellectual capability of a Systems Engineer (compared to the national pool of SEs) to analyze complex problems and synthesize solutions.

Rating Description

Very High Near Perfect Functioning Team (90th Percentile).

High Extraordinary (75th Percentile).

Nominal Functional and Effective (55th Percentile).

Low Functional with Low Effectiveness (35th Percentile).

Very Low Poorly Functioning Team (15th Percentile).

Personnel Experience/Continuity The applicability and consistency of the staff at the initial stage of the project with respect to the domain, customer, user, technology, tools, etc.

Rating Experience Annual Turnover

Very High 10 years of continuous experience. 3%

High 5 years of continuous experience. 6%


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Nominal 3 years of continuous experience. 12%

Low 1 years of continuous experience. 24%

Very Low Less than 2 months of continuous experience. 48%

DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY AIDS Category heading; enter data in the inputs within this category.

Process Capability The consistency and effectiveness of the project team at performing SE processes. This may be based on assessment ratings from a published process model (e.g., CMMI, EIA-731, SE-CMM, ISO/IEC15504). It can also be based on project team behavioral characteristics, if no assessment has been performed. The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project when considering their possible impact.

Assessment Rating (Capability or Maturity) Rating Description

Extra High Level 5.

Very High Level 4.

High Level 3.

Nominal Level 2.

Low Level 1.

Very Low Level 0 (if continuous model).

Project Team Behavioral Characteristics Rating Description

Extra High Optimizing SE process, activities driven by SE & org benefit, SE focus on life cycle & strategic apps.

Very High Quantitatively managed SE process, activities driven by SE benefit, SE focus on all phases of life cycle.

High Defined SE process, activities driven by benefit to project, SE focus is through operation.

Nominal Managed SE process, activities driven by customer & stakeholder needs, SE focus is reqs thru design.


Low Performed SE process, activities driven only by immediate customer reqs, SE focus is limited.

Very Low Ad hoc approach to process performance.

Multisite Coordination Location of stakeholders, team members, resources, corporate collaboration barriers. The following viewpoints represent factors which may affect this parameter; use your judgment and your understanding of the project when considering their possible impact.

Collocation Rating Description

Extra High Fully collocated stakeholders.

Very High Same building or complex, some collocated stakeholders or onsite representation.

High Same city or metro area.

Nominal Multi-city or multi-company, some time zone effects.

Low Multi-city and multi-national, considerable time zone impact.

Very Low Simple application or small size.

Communications Rating Description

Extra High Interactive multimedia.

Very High Wideband electronic communication, occasional video conference.

High Wideband electronic communication

Nominal Narrowband email.

Low Individual phone, FAX.

Very Low Some phone, mail.

Corporate Collaboration Barriers Rating Description

Extra High Virtual team environment fully supported by interactive, collaborative tools environment.


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Very High Widely used & accepted collaborative tools & processes in place to facilitate or overcome barriers.

High Some collaborative tools & processes in place to facilitate or overcome barriers.

Nominal Some contractual & intellectual property constraints.

Low Mild export & security restrictions.

Very Low Severe export & security restrictions.

Tool Support Coverage, integration, and maturity of the tools in the Systems Engineering environment.

Rating Description

Very High Strong, mature proactive use of SE tools integrated with process, model-based SE & management systems.

High Strong, mature SE tools, moderately integrated with other disciplines.

Nominal Basic SE tools moderately integrated throughout the process.

Low Simple SE tools, little integration.

Very Low No SE tools.

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Parameters Tab Although most of the inputs on the Parameters tab are specific to the selected work element, there are three categories of inputs which are common to all or most work elements:

Additional Item Inputs (All work elements)

The Additional Items group of inputs is used to include labor and/or material cost for anything not estimated by SEER-IT. Additional Items is found at the end of each SEER-IT WBS element type as well as in its own element type. You may enter up to 20 groups of additional items inputs. Each additional item group includes the following set of parameters:


Description A textual description identifying the item being included. You may also click the Search Catalog button to retrieve items you have stored in the catalog. See: Search Catalog, below

Activity The activity or phase in which the additional items is to be allocated.

Labor Category The labor category in which the additional item labor is to be allocated. You will indicate if labor hours are to be classified as in-house (the default) or contractor.

Quantity A multiplier for labor hours and material cost. This can be used if you want to consider multiples of the item. If the quantity is to be multiplied by the duration, a label will be inserted next to the quantity input to indicate whether this is a weekly, monthly or yearly value.

Quantity Unit of Measure Use of this parameter is optional; you can ignore it, unless you have a specific need to use it.

The Quantity Unit of Measure serves strictly as a label for the Quantity parameter. It is designed for use in organizations where there is a specific need to label Additional Item quantities for in-house reference. It will be available for flexible export, and it will be saved to the SEER-DB project database. It will not have any effect on estimates. Each item in the QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE list will appear as a selection in the Quantity Unit of Measure parameter's pull-down selection list. There are separate QUANTITY UNIT OF MEASURE sections in SEER-IT Settings.ini for Purchased hardware, Purchased Software, and Additional Items. The default lists include items commonly associated with the work element in question.

See SEER-IT Settings.INI

Data Entered As Indicate if the quantity is to be multiplied by the duration (duration driven) or spread over the duration (total).

See: How Data Entered As Works, below

Labor Type Indicate if labor hours are to be classified as in-house (the default) or contractor.


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Hourly Labor Rate The hourly labor rate to be used for additional item labor.

Labor Hours The number of hours for the additional item.

Material Cost The material cost of the additional item.

Start Date The date in which additional items cost and labor are incurred.

Duration The number of weeks over which the item is to be scheduled.

Duration Unit of Measure Indicate the units for the duration: weeks, months or years.

How Data Entered As Works Additional Items Data Entered As allows you to choose how Quantity, Labor Hours and Material Cost will be applied to Duration. There are two basic ways to do this:

• Enter a total quantity for the entire duration, then spread hours and cost over the duration, or

• Enter a quantity per unit of duration (weeks, months, or years), then multiply hours and cost times the total units of duration.

These methods produce very different cost and labor totals.

Note that in both cases, Labor Hours and Material Cost are per Quantity Unit of Measure; the difference lies in the relationship between Quantity and Duration. Both methods are described below:

Quantity Driven: Spread Total Over Duration When you select the Spread Total Over Duration option, the label for the Quantity input becomes Qty (Total), and the Quantity becomes the total quantity for the entire Duration period.


Spread Total Over Duration

For example, if you set the Duration to 10 months, set the Quantity to 25, and set the Quantity Unit of Measure to Devices, the estimate will be for a total of 25 Devices over a Duration of ten months. The total hours and cost will be respectively the Labor Hours and Material Cost multiplied by the Quantity: Total Labor Hours = (Labor Hours per Qty) * Qty (Total)

Total Material Cost = (Material Cost per Qty) * Qty (Total) The estimate will spread the total hours and total cost evenly across the Duration, and the Duration itself has no effect on the totals:

Total Spread Across Duration

Quantity and Duration Driven: Multiply Quantity By Duration When you select the Multiply Quantity By Duration option, the label for the Quantity input becomes a forward slash (meaning "per") followed by the Duration unit (Weeks, Months, or Years), and the Quantity becomes the quantity per Duration unit.


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Multiply Quantity By Duration

For example, if you use the same Duration, Quantity, and Quantity Unit of Measure settings as the previous example (Duration = 10 Months, Quantity = 25 Devices) the estimate will now be for a total of 25 Devices per month over a Duration of 10 months, or 250 Devices. The total hours and cost will be respectively the Labor Hours and Material Cost multiplied by the Quantity times the Duration: Total Labor Hours = (Labor Hours per Qty) * Qty * Duration

Total Material Cost = (Material Cost per Qty) * Qty * Duration The total hours and cost will depend on the Duration as well as the Quantity.

Quantity Multiplied By Duration

Quantity and Quantity Unit of Measure in the Additional Items Input Dialog Box The Quantity input is the first set of Least/Likely/Most inputs below the Multiply Quantity/Spread Total options in the full Additional Items input dialog box.


The Quantity Unit of Measure selector is just to the left of the Quantity input label; the actual label changes depending on which Multiply Quantity/Spread Total you select.

Search Catalog (Additional Items, Purchased Hardware, and Purchased Software)

The Search Catalog option allows you to select items from a catalog. When you select an item, the appropriate inputs will be automatically filled in with the information for that item. This saves time when you have a list of parts, purchased items, services, or similar items which are likely to be used in multiple work elements or estimates.

The Search Catalog dialog box consists of two panes:

Pane Description

Type The categories into which the items are organized. Depending on the kind of estimate or work element, they could be categories of parts, types of services, categories of purchased items, or a combination of all of these.

Description When you select a Type, the Description pane will list all of the items of that type. The list will include columns showing the input values associated with each item, such as Hours, Labor Category, or Material Cost. The actual inputs will vary, depending on the kind of estimate.

To select an item, click on it, then click on the OK button. The dialog box will close, and the estimate inputs will now be filled in with the values for that item. You can accept the values as-is, or make any necessary adjustments to reflect the actual conditions of your estimate. The catalog is customizable. It can be filled in with items from a parts list or any other list of products, services, or features which your organization uses in creating estimates. Typically, of course, such customization will be done by a system or database administrator, or by a power user assigned to the task by your organization. The catalog itself is a database that can be in a variety of formats, since the program connects with the database file using Windows' ODBC feature, which is designed to provide universal data connectibility. The catalog that ships with SEER-IT is in Microsoft Excel format, and is named SEER-IT_Lookup.xls. It can, however, be in other formats, such as Microsoft Access, as long as it contains the correct tables and fields.

In most cases, the easiest way to customize the catalog will be to make a copy of SEER-IT_Lookup.xls, and move the data into it. A large organization with multiple SEER-IT users, for example, could place a copy of SEER-IT_Lookup.xls on a network so that it is available to all SEER-IT users (via ODBC), and automate the process of moving large volumes of data into it.

See: Editing the Catalog Database


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Ongoing Support Inputs (All elements except Additional Items and Architecture/Design)

The Ongoing Support group of inputs determines if ongoing support is included in the estimate and to what degree. The specific set of inputs in this category will varies with the SEER-IT WBS element type, as indicated below:

Annual Quantity Growth (Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software) Accounts for the annual percentage growth (or shrinkage) of the quantity during ongoing support. Growth will occur after the first fiscal year of ongoing support. Growth may range from -100% to +100%.

Annual User Growth (Software/Database Services, End User Services, Infrastructure Services, Training, Service Desk, Facilities) The annual percentage growth in the number of users expected.

Maintenance Release Frequency (Software/Database Services)

The expected number of months between minor maintenance releases. This input will determine how often minor updates will be required.

Range Description

36 or greater Minor updates very infrequent, older unsupported applications.

24 Minor updates every two years, mature COTS or custom applications.

12 Minor updates once a year, typical with COTS.

6 Minor updates twice a year, typical for newer applications.

0 No minor updates assumed.

Ongoing Support Hours (Application Development) Total labor hours for operations and support to be added to the project for this work element. Support labor cost is computed based on support labor hours and the support hourly rate.

Input values for support labor hours may be brought in from other applications (e.g., SEER for Software) or entered directly.


Ongoing Support Start Date (Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software)

Enter the start date for ongoing support, or use the computed value. If you leave the Use Computed Value box checked, the start date will be at the end of the period specified in the Months input, which sets the length of the Project phase for the purpose of calculating Project-phase support costs. The end of the project phase marks the beginning of the ongoing support phase.

If the Months input is set to 0, and Use Computed Value is checked, the Ongoing Support Start Date will be the current date.

Service Level Agreement (Software/Database Services, End User Services, Infrastructure Services)

Service level target benchmark for software and database system support, often measured as a percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe. Note that specific targets and SLA levels vary widely depending on the industry and the nature of the help desk.

Rating Description

Very High Acknowledged within 15 minutes and fixed within 2 hours (Gold).

High Acknowledged within 1 hour and fixed within 4 hours.

Nominal Acknowledged within 4 hours and fixed within 8 hours (Silver).

Low Acknowledged within 24 hours and fixed within 48 hours (Bronze).

Very Low Acknowledged within 2 business days and fixed within 5 business days (Basic).

Support Cost Per Interval (Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software)

The cost of the support service specified in the Support Interval parameter.

Input values for support cost per interval may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database and support cost per interval information is provided, or it may be entered directly.

Note: Ongoing Support labor for maintaining systems may also be parametrically estimated using the Infrastructure Services or End User Services modules of SEER-IT. This support cost is typically used for the cost of warranty or service contract provided by a vendor.

Support Duration (years) (Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software)


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The duration in years for ongoing support. This should reflect the length of time that needs to be included in your estimate. This input does not need to be an integer, so you can include effort for partial years.

Support Interval (Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software)

The interval in which support costs are incurred for the hardware or software item. Services include common maintenance tasks, health checks, recommendations by a technical representative, installation of updates and upgrades, implementation of new hardware or software, etc.

Support Interval Choices • Annual • Bi-Annual • Quarterly • Monthly • One Time • None

The input value for support interval may be automatically filled if an item is selected from the database and support interval information is provided, or it may be entered directly.

Upgrade Frequency (Software/Database Services, Training, User Documentation) The expected number of months between major updates or upgrades of the application (or the documentation, for the User Documentation work element). This input will determine how often software (or documentation) will require updating.

Range Description

36 or greater Major upgrades very infrequent. (Applications: typical with custom applications.)

24 Major upgrades every two years. (Applications: typical with COTS.)

12 Major upgrades once a year.

6 Major upgrades twice a year, much more than average.

0 No upgrades assumed.


Probability (All elements) Probability of completion within estimated budget and schedule for the element under analysis.

Probability Description

90% Often used as a worst case estimate.

80% Potentially appropriate for fixed price bids.

50% Most Likely.

20% Optimistic, sometimes used for "cost plus" bidding.

If you set the probability to 30%, there would be: a 30% chance that the actual project would be under the estimated schedule and cost figures. a 70% chance that the actual project would go over the estimated figures.

If you set the probability to 90%, there would be: a 90% chance that the project would be under the estimated values.

a 10% chance that the value would be exceeded. Therefore a probability of 50% provides the most likely estimate and is most often used. In a sense, the probability parameter represents either the confidence level of the estimate, or the risk involved.

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Schedule Tab (All work elements except Additional Items)

The Schedule tab contains the SCHEDULE input category, along with the Ongoing Support schedule inputs.

SCHEDULE SEER-IT allocates estimates into eight general activities or phases. Each activity has its own start date and duration. The SCHEDULE category of inputs gives you the ability to include or exclude any phase as part of your estimate. Not all SEER-IT elements estimate all phases. The specific activity performed for each phase will depend on the type of estimation element you are looking at and how detailed parameters are set. General activity descriptions are as follows:


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Activity Description

Analysis Evaluation of requirements, determination of general approaches.

Design Detailed design of systems to be built including drawings, schematics and engineering studies.

Procurement Time and cost for purchased goods and services.

Construction Building of systems including unique setup efforts.

Testing Test and checkout of systems being deployed.

Training Development of user documentation, courseware, training activities.

Distribution Set-ups and installation of hardware and software for end users.

Other Optional phase.

For detailed descriptions of each activity, along with descriptions of how they apply to individual work elements, see SEER-IT Activities in the SEER-IT Output Definitions section of this user's guide.

Each activity includes a common set of parameters:

Activity name A Yes/No option for including the given activity as part of the estimate. In general, all activities are included as part of the estimate by default.

Start Date The date in which this phase of the schedule is to begin.

By default, this input is computed as the end of the prior phase for all phases except Analysis. The Start Date for Analysis will default to "today’s date" if you don’t set it to a specific date. If you don’t want to use the computed value, you may enter a specific start date and uncheck the use computed value box.

Duration The number of weeks that this phase of the schedule is expected to last. By default, a computed value for duration is provided for all phases except Other.

If you don’t want to use the computed value, you may enter the duration in weeks and uncheck the use computed value box.

Distribution Phases (Distribution activity only)

The number of discrete phases in which distribution take place.


ONGOING SUPPORT (All work elements except Purchased Hardware, Purchased Software, and Architecture/ Design) Ongoing support is the effort required to maintain and support the systems once operational. The Schedule tab's ONGOING SUPPORT group of inputs allows you to set the schedule for the Ongoing Support activity:

ONGOING SUPPORT A Yes/No option for including Ongoing Support as part of the estimate.

Ongoing Support Start Date The date in which ongoing support begins.

By default, this input is computed as the end of the prior phase. If you don’t want to use the computed value, you may enter a specific start date and uncheck the use computed value box.

Support Duration The duration in years for ongoing support. This should reflect the length of time that needs to be included in your estimate. Note that unlike the Duration input in the SCHEDULE input category, Support Duration is a three-value Least, Likely, Most input. For inputs governing the type and scope of Ongoing support for each work element, see the SEER-IT Common Inputs: Parameters Tab section of this user's guide.

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Economic Factor Tab (All work elements except Purchased Hardware / Software, Additional Items)

The ECONOMIC FACTOR group of inputs sets the labor rates used for each labor category. It also sets the degree in which in-house (vs. contractor) resources are used.

For a detailed description of each labor category, see SEER-IT Labor Categories/Roles in the Activities and Labor Categories section of this user's guide. The following common parameters apply to each labor category:

In-house Hourly Labor Rate The hourly labor rate for in-house resources of given category. This may reflect just the direct labor costs or may be fully burdened.


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Contractor Hourly Labor Rate The hourly labor rate for contracted resources of the given category. Contracted rates will generally be fully burdened to reflect the end-cost to the organization. If you are not using contracted labor rates, this input does not need to be set.

Percentage of Labor In-House The percent of labor hours for the given category that are provided by in-house or internal resources. By default, this is 100%.

Computing In-house vs. Contractor Costs The default value of 100% for the Percentage of Labor In-house assumes that all labor is provided by in-house or internal resources and the in-house labor rate will be applied. If any hours are to be outsourced and must be tracked separately, use this input to describe the portion of hours that are not outsourced. The following relationships are used in determining in-house versus contracted labor hours and cost: In-house Hours = Estimated Hours * Percent In-house In-house Cost = In-house Hours * In-house Labor Rate Contracted Hours = Estimated Hours * (1 - Percent In-house) Contracted Cost = Contracted Hours * Contractor Labor Rate

Wraps Wraps can be used to adjust labor hours or material cost for any estimated or entered values. Wraps will adjust parametrically estimated values as well as those entered using purchased items or additional items. Wraps are generally used for adding additional labor or material cost for such things as contractual administrative fees, however, they can be expressed as a negative percentage to capture discounts. Wraps can range from -100% - 1000%.

The Wraps category includes the following inputs: • Project Labor Cost Wrap

• Project Material Cost Wrap • Ongoing Support Labor Cost Wrap

• Ongoing Support Material Cost Wrap


Optional Replacement Cost The Optional Replacement Cost inputs capture the costs for replacing single units of each of the following items, either when the device has reached its useful life, or has been lost through attrition. Optional Replacement Cost includes the following inputs for the work elements indicated:

End User Services • Desktop Replacement Cost

• Notebook Replacement Cost

• Mobile Device Replacement Cost

• Other Device Replacement Cost

Infrastructure Services • Server Replacement Cost

• Storage Device Replacement Cost

• Network Device Replacement Cost All of these inputs are optional.

CURRENCY AND EXCHANGE RATE When the Multi-Currency option is turned ON in the Project Parameters dialog box, a set of Currency and Exchange Rate parameters are made available at the work element level.

When inserting new work elements, the default currency values are the same as the project parameter values, which you can then change as required.

Code Select a currency Code to set the Exchange Rate, Currency name, and currency Symbol.

Default Currency and Exchange Rate Data are stored in the SEER-IT Data.INI file, which may be customized as required. The Currency and Exchange Rate are also displayed on most reports.

Currency The Currency name is automatically set by the Code selection, and is for display only.

Symbol The currency Symbol is automatically set by the Code selection, and is for display only.

Exchange Rate The initial exchange rate value is automatically set by the Code selection. But you can override and set the value manually.


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The Exchange Rate value adjusts all the SEER-IT Labor Rates; but not the User Input Labor Rates. Those and throughput costs are assumed to be in the selected currency. Exchange Rate at the Rollup Level will adjust the rollup reported costs to reflect the selected rollup currency.

SEER-IT Common Inputs: Labor Category Allocation Tab You can use the Labor Category Allocation tab to allocate the selected activity into labor categories. Activities in SEER-IT are functionally related types of tasks that roughly correspond to phases of work on a project (which may overlap in time, and vary in sequence). Labor categories represent labor roles, or general categories of job description. For a full description of labor categories and activities, and an explanation of how allocation works, see Activities and Labor Categories, in this user's guide.

PROJECT LABOR ALLOCATION This is a category heading. Enter data for the individual inputs in this category. The PROJECT LABOR ALLOCATION includes the labor category allocation inputs for each SEER-IT activity. These activities represent all phases of the project except Ongoing Support.

Labor Category Allocation Input Dialog Box

The Labor Allocation dialog box is a standard SEER-IT input dialog box. The following items are specific to Labor Allocations.


Item Description

Labor categories/ percentages

Each labor category is included in the dialog box, along with an input field for entering the percentage of the activity's effort which will be handled by that labor category.

Total The total of all of the labor category allocation percentages shown in the dialog box. This number represents the total percentage of the activity's effort that is currently being handled by any of the labor categories.

The total must equal 100%. If it does not equal 100%, SEER-IT will display an alert, and ask you if you want to normalize the values (adjust them proportionally so that they total 100%). If you select Yes, SEER-IT will automatically normalize the values and exit the dialog box, saving the data. If you select No, the program will return you to the Labor Allocation dialog box, allowing you to adjust the allocations manually.

Normalize Values Click on the Normalize Values button to automatically adjust the allocation percentages proportionally so that they equal 100%.

SEER-IT Features

Activities and Labor Categories The work on a given activity can be handled by a mix of labor categories, and each labor category can contribute work to more than one activity. The labor for each activity represents 100% of the work actually done for that activity (independent of the actual effort involved, or even whether the tasks are completed), so the total labor allocation for each activity must add up to 100%. This means that the allocation numbers represent the percentage of each activity that is handled by the specified labor category. They do not represent percentages of labor categories.

So, for example, if the Technician labor category accounts for 45% of the Construction activity, 30% of Test, and 45% of Distribution, there's no problem, since the percentages represent the way that the activities are divided up among labor categories, and not the way that the Technician labor category is divided up among activities.

If 30% the Construction activity, on the other hand, were to be allocated to the Management labor category, with 45% to Technician, and another 45% to Administrator, there would be a problem, since the work done for the Construction activity must add up to 100%.

In practice, SEER-IT won't allow you to allocate more or less than 100% of an activity. If you try to allocate any percentage other than 100% (using the 30%/45%/45% Construction activity


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allocation described in the preceding paragraph, for example) in the Labor Allocation dialog box, SEER-IT will warn you that the allocation does not add up to 100%, and ask if you want to automatically normalize the values (which in this example, would then become 25%/37.5%/37.5%). It will not let you save the labor allocation values without manually adjusting them, or automatically normalizing them (which you can also do using the dialog box's Normalize Values button).

SEER-IT Activities SEER-IT allocates estimates into eight general activities or phases, each with its own start date and duration. Not all SEER-IT elements use all phases; you can choose which phases are included in your estimate. Activities for each phase depend on the type of SEER-IT element and parameter settings.

Activity Description

Analysis Evaluation of requirements and determination of general approaches.

Design Detailed system design including drawings, schematics and engineering studies.

Procurement Time and cost for purchased goods and services.

Construction Building of systems including unique setup efforts.

Testing Test and checkout of systems being deployed.

Training Development of user documentation, courseware and training activities.

Distribution Setups and installation of hardware and software for end users.

Ongoing Support The effort required to maintain and support the systems once operational.

The general activities that are estimated by SEER-IT are as follows:


Activ

ities

Anal

ysis

Desig

n

Proc

urem

ent

Cons

truc

tion

Test

ing

Trai

ning

Dist

ribut

ion

Ong

oing

Sup

port

Element Types

Purchased Hardware x x

Purchased Software x x

Application Development x x x x x

Software/Database Services x x x x x x

End User Services x x x x

Infrastructure Services x x x x x x

Training x x x x

User Documentation x

Facilities x x x

Additional Items x x x x x x x x

SEER-IT Labor Categories/Roles SEER-IT allocates estimates into eleven labor categories. Not all elements estimate all categories.

Category Description

Management Project planning, staffing and tracking, ongoing daily operational activities.

Analyst Planning and definition of project / support system needs and requirements. Also involved in ongoing support, as a bridge between the user and the technical team. Generally has system, technology or discipline specialty knowledge. Business Requirements Analyst

Support Analyst Database Analyst

Business System Analyst Network Analyst Security Analyst Business Process Analyst UI Analyst Telecommunications Analyst

Operations Analyst


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Architect Develops high level system design plans, formulates technology-related policies.

Systems Architect IT Architect Network Architect

Systems Engin

eer Storage Architect Data Architect

Software Development

IT system programmers. Includes coding, unit testing, unit documentation, and test driver development. Software developers will also support fielded systems by fixing software errors or bugs.

Technician Installation, setup, support, upgrades, maintenance, troubleshooting.

Desktop/PC Technician Network Engineer/Technician

Hardware Technician

Telecommunications Technician

Test/QA Verifies system integrity and performance, develops test plans, tracks defects, reports problems, and audits compliance.

IT Auditor

QA Analyst Application Tester

Documentation Prepares and maintains programming, operation, and end-user documentation, including manuals and help systems, but excluding training materials.

Technical Writer Online Help Publisher Documentation Specialist

Report Writer Content Developer

Training Conducts trainings, prepares and updates courseware and training materials.

Administrator Administration, maintenance and support for a system, such as a platform, database, network, or an enterprise application. Includes managers of specific systems (e.g. License Manager, CRM Manager).

Network Administrator Enterprise Application Administrator

System Administrator Telecommunications Administrator

Database Administrator Storage Administrator

Security Administrator

Operator Generally not included, but may be included using the Additional Items.

Indirect Support Generally not included, but may be included using the Additional Items. Can include non-IT supporting roles, such as administrative assistants.


SEER-IT Output Definitions SEER-IT reports results in several different formats: summary, by activity, by labor category and time-phased. What is included in your estimate depends on specific project and parameter settings.

High Level Categories and Terminology Category Description

Project Project labor or cost is non-recurring. It is the sum of the analysis, design, procurement, construction, testing, training and distribution phases.

Ongoing Support Ongoing support captures the effort and cost associated with a system that is operational. The scope of the ongoing support cost will be determined by the support duration parameter for any given element.

Labor Hours The work hours required to complete either project or ongoing support tasks.

Labor Cost The cost associated with the labor hours. Labor cost is determined by multiplying the labor hours by the corresponding labor rates.

Material Cost The cost of purchased hardware, software and other non-labor items associated with a project or ongoing support.

In-House Labor costs for effort performed by in-house staff. All labor is categorized as in-house by default and in-house labor rates apply.

Contractor Labor costs for effort performed by contractor staff. Contractor labor costs are determined by contractor labor rates and effort allocated to the contractor.

Schedule The schedule is the overall duration in elapsed months of either an individual activity or the overall project or ongoing support effort. Schedules also have start and end dates associated with them and are used for time-phased reports.


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SEER-IT Detail Output Definitions The following tables detail the output definitions for SEER-IT modules.

Infrastructure Services Outputs

Activity: Analysis

Output Detailed Description

Capacity Planning Planning for network systems and servers to meet current and future operational requirements, based on expected usage patterns and growth trends.

Asset/Configuration Management Planning

Asset or CM planning is the upfront effort required to put in place plans for tracking assets, leases and service agreements.

Activity: Design


Server & Network Documentation

This is the effort required to document the server and network configuration. It also includes documentation of system usage and maintenance processes.

Activity: Construction


Server & Network Setup

This is the effort associated with the installation and setup of server and network components including system software installation.

Activity: Testing


Server Test Test and checkout of the installed servers before they go online.

Network Test Test and checkout of the installed network components before they go online.

System Test Testing and checkout of the overall system.


Activity: Ongoing Support


Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Proactive monitoring and balancing the performance of servers and networked systems.

Capacity Management

Proactive monitoring, management, and optimization of online and off-line storage, including file backup, deletion and purging. Does not include database management and administration (which is part of data center operations).

System Support General services to support server systems, including operating system support, backup/recovery, and disk file management.

Advanced Problem Resolution

Sever and network support for issues that cannot be resolved by standard support. Includes faults or failures in servers or network equipment or operating systems. Excludes user or system applications (part of end user services).

Hardware Maintenance

Scheduled maintenance effort required to service network and server hardware.

Ongoing Asset/Configuration Management

Effort associated with tracking server and network equipment configurations, serial numbers, warrantees and leases.

Hardware Replacements

Effort required replacing servers, storage or network equipment that is either lost to attrition or has reached the end of its planned life.

End User Services Outputs Activity: Analysis


End User System Analysis

Effort associated with evaluating end-user system requirements and planning system procurement.

Activity: Testing


System Test Effort to test and evaluate end-user systems to ensure they meet requirements.


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Activity: Distribution


Distribution Effort for the system setup and check out, not including software application setup beyond that for the standard system setup.



User Administration User account support, which includes adding new users and maintaining existing users.

Advanced Problem Resolution

Support for issues that cannot be resolved by standard support. Includes hardware faults or failures, operating system and software application issues.

Hardware Maintenance

Scheduled maintenance effort required to service user equipment.

Hardware Replacements

Effort required replacing end user equipment that is either lost to attrition or has reached the end of its planned life.

Software/Database Services Outputs

Activity: Analysis


Release Requirements

Analysis of release requirements for end user software, server applications, and databases. Includes user needs, release methods and system requirements. Excludes operating systems and infrastructure software.

Activity: Design


Release Plan Preparation of a plan for release, including deployment schedules.

Activity: Testing


Operational Test Operational test and checkout of the production configuration of the application. Includes any user load testing and security checks.




Prototype Install For applications that will be distributed to multiple users or locations, build and verify the production configuration. Document the configuration, including a file manifest and configuration settings (e.g. registry, data connections).

Software Repackaging

Development, documentation and testing of install scripts and procedures.

Server Application Setup

Installation, setup and checkout of the application on the server.

Database Setup Installation, setup and checkout of any common databases that are used by the application. This also includes end user setup for new databases.

Activity: Distribution


Distribution Distribution of the application to end user machines. Also includes any redundant server and database setups.



Client Upgrades Upgrades to end-user systems, including major and minor releases.

New Client Setups Setup for new users, determined by user turnover and growth.

Server Upgrades Upgrades to server based applications, including major, minor releases.

Application Monitoring

The monitoring of the performance and availability of the application to ensure it meets service level requirements. This effort also includes application related tier 2 support.

Database Upgrades Upgrades to application databases, including major, minor updates.

Database Monitoring/Tuning

The monitoring of database activity to ensure that databases are running efficiently and performance is optimized. This effort also includes database related tier 2 support.

Database Administration

General database management and administration, including security management and user provisioning.


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Database Backup/Recovery Operations

Review and audit of backup processes to make sure that database backup operations are on schedule. Database recovery tasks as required and scheduled database backups.

Training Outputs

Activity: Analysis


Training Requirements Assessment

Evaluation of training requirements to determine things such as course size, length and training methods. Course syllabus development.



Courseware Preparation

Building courseware materials, including slides, case studies, and examples. With high Instructional Technology parameter, includes CBT materials.

Activity: Training


Student Training Hours

Time students spend in training.

Instructor Training Hours

Time spent by instructors when conducting training, including pre-class prep time.

Purchased Training If included, costs for purchasing vendor supplied training classes.

Training Materials Recurring and non-recurring material costs associated with training. This could include facilities fees, publishing training materials or training equipment.



Courseware Maintenance

Updating and maintaining courseware materials to accommodate changes in the application, or other relevant changes.

Student Training Hours

Time students spend in training during ongoing support phase. This is additional training demand due to user growth and turnover.


Instructor Training Hours

Time spent by instructors when conducting training, including pre-class prep time, during ongoing support.

Facilities Outputs Activity: Construction


Horizontal Cable Installation

Installation time for laying down horizontal cable, usually from an equipment room to the user node.

Backbone Cable Installation

Installation time for installing the vertical or backbone cabling.

Terminal Component Installation

Installation time for installing faceplates and jacks.

Other Component Installation

Installation time for switches, connectors, patch panels, etc.

Cable Material Costs Material costs for horizontal and vertical cable. Also includes costs for faceplates, jacks, connectors, patch panels, switches, and splices.

Construction Costs Costs for office facilities, computing facilities and equipment rooms.

Activity: Testing


Port Test Time for test and checkout of ports.

Backbone Test Time to test the cable backbone.



Cable Support Time to check and maintain cables during ongoing support.

Utilities Costs for utilities such as power.

Telecom and Data Costs for voice and data services, plus leased lines if included.

Office Supplies Cost for office supplies during ongoing support.

Other Costs Cost for any other miscellaneous supplies.


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Service Desk Activity: Ongoing Support


End User System Support

First line support for specified end user systems. Includes taking / documenting calls, resolving / elevating issues, follow-up and service desk management.



Application Support First line application user support. Includes taking /documenting calls, resolving / elevating issues, follow-up and service desk management.

User Documentation

Activity: Analysis


Information planning Assessment and planning of the documentation project. This includes establishing a project plan, identifying user documentation requirements.

Activity: Design


Content specification In depth specification of the content to be covered, identifying all features and use cases that need to be explained to the user.



Writing/Editing Establish style templates. Prepare outlines and identify major topics/sections. Technical writing, formatting, and illustration. All editing tasks including literary edit and copyedit. Establish table of contents and indexes.

Production Generate final TOC and indexes. Prepare camera ready copy. Review publication proofs. Printing, binding and packaging of hardcopy publications.

Printing cost If specified, any material costs for printing or publishing.




Documentation update

Prepare and review user documentation changes based on application changes.

SEER-IT Reports Choose from several reports to see your estimate by phase, labor category or even a breakout of in-house versus outsourced costs.

Floating Report Windows To view a report in a separate window, right-click on that report's title tab (not the main body of the report) in the Reports window, then select Open in New Window from the title tab's right-click menu. The report will appear in a floating, resizable window.

The right-click menu for the window contains the same options as the standard report right-click menu, including Copy, Print, and Set Reference. To close a floating report window, click on the X in the upper right-hand corner, just as you would with any window.

Summary Reports Quick Estimate The quick estimate report provides a quick summary of the overall estimate. You may optionally set a reference to compare your current estimate against.

Item Description

Rows

TOTAL Click on the + sign to display estimate totals.

Total Cost Total labor and material costs for the project and ongoing support.

Total Labor Cost Total labor costs for the project and ongoing support.

Total Material Cost Total material costs for the project and ongoing support.

Total Labor Hours Total labor hours for the project and ongoing support.

Total Schedule Months

Total schedule months for the project and ongoing support.

PROJECT Click on the + sign to display cost, hours, and schedule estimates for the project.

Project Cost Total labor and material costs for the project.


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Project Labor Cost Labor costs for the project.

Project Material Cost Material costs for the project.

Project Labor Hours Labor hours for the project.

Proj. Schedule Months

Schedule months for the project. Click on the + sign for start and end dates.

Project Start Date From the Schedule parameters. Start date of the first activity in the schedule.

Project End Date From the Schedule parameters. The end date of the last activity in the schedule.

ONGOING SUPPORT Click on the + sign to display cost, hours, and schedule for ongoing support.

Ongoing Support Cost

Total labor and material costs for ongoing support.

Ong. Sup. Labor Cost Labor costs for ongoing support.

Ong. Sup. Material Cost

Material costs for ongoing support.

Ong. Sup. Labor Hours

Labor hours for ongoing support.

Ong. Sup. Schedule Months

Schedule months for ongoing support. Click on the + sign to display ongoing support start and end dates.

Ong. Sup. Start Date From the Ongoing Support parameters.

Ong. Sup. End Date From the Ongoing Support parameters. Based on start date and duration.

Columns

Value The estimate's current value for the line item.

Reference If you have set a reference, the values will appear in this column.

Difference If you set a reference, the % difference between reference and estimated values.

The level of detail visible on the quick estimate report may be adjusted by clicking on the +/- buttons next to a header section. In the example below, only the project cost, effort and schedule are visible.


Phased Activity The phased activity report shows schedule months, labor hours, labor cost and material cost for all phases, including ongoing support.

Labor Detail The labor detail shows hours and costs for each of the labor categories included in your estimate. This report is useful when you need to understand effort by role or discipline.

Labor Category Hours/Cost by Activity These two reports provide the labor estimates for each labor category by activity or phase. Totals are provided for each activity, labor category for project, ongoing support and total labor estimates.

Economic Factors This report shows hours and cost for in-house and contractor labor for each labor category, along with totals. You can specify labor rates and percent done in-house in the Economic Factors parameters.

Risk Analysis This report shows the cost and hours as a function of the probability of completion within budget. Both project and ongoing support information is available on this report, broken out into labor hours, labor cost, material cost and total cost. Multi-Currency Summary This report summarizes the currencies in use for the selected project or rollup, with a breakdown of costs by cost category and currency. Available only when Multi-Currency is turned on in the Currency and Exchange Rate tab of the Project Parameters dialog box.

Time Phased Reports Cost by Fiscal Year/Then Year Cost by Fiscal Year/Hours by Fiscal Year The Cost by Fiscal Year and Then Year Cost By Fiscal Year reports allocate in-house, contractor, material, and total costs into fiscal years.

The Cost By Fiscal Year Report provides cost by fiscal year in constant base year dollars. The Then Year Cost By Fiscal Year Report provides the cost by fiscal year in then year dollars. The fiscal year start month assumption is shown at the top of the report. You may change the fiscal year start month from the project parameters. You may optionally see cost by month by expanding the fiscal year row. This report is useful for long term budgeting.


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The Hours by Fiscal Year report provides the hours by fiscal year. This report has the same format as the Cost By Fiscal Year Report, with the exception that it shows hours, rather than costs.

Cost / Hours by Fiscal Year Report Format

Activity Hours/Cost/Staff/Material Cost by Month These reports show project cost, hours, staff, and material cost for each activity by calendar months. You may optionally view the indicated quantities for in-house and contractor as well as totals. Ongoing support if included in the estimate, will appear in its own column.

Project Labor Category Cost/Hours/Staff by Month

Ongoing Support Cost/Hours/Staff by Month These reports, which all follow the same basic format, show labor cost, hours, or staff for each labor category by calendar month. The Project Labor Category Cost and Hours reports show cost/hours/staff for the project. The Ongoing Support reports show cost/hours/staff for ongoing support. They are grouped into in-house, contractor and total labor, and can provide time phased labor requirements that can be used for resource scheduling.

Project Risk Reports There are several reports that show the results of the Monte Carlo risk calculations. The Monte Carlo risk calculations must be enabled by the user in the Project Parameters dialog box. See the section on Risk Analysis for more information. The project risk reports include the following:

Project Labor Risk Ongoing Support Labor Risk

Project Total Cost Risk Ongoing Support Total Cost Risk

Project Schedule Risk Ongoing Support Schedule Risk

Inputs Reports Inputs with Notes Lists the input parameters.


Note: the input report prints and displays to the same level of detail as displayed on the parameter view screen. Thus, if you desire a category (summary) level input report, collapse the parameter view so it shows only the category level parameters, then print the input report. The Window menu provides commands to collapse and expand the Parameter View inputs. The Inputs With Notes Reports includes any notes for each parameter, as well as the element note for the selected work element. (The element note concludes the report.)

Inputs vs. Reference/ Inputs vs. Knowledge Base These two reports are formatted just like the input report for ease of matching. Inputs vs. Reference compares the current input parameters to their settings when a reference was set. Parameters that are unchanged from their values when the Estimate Set Reference Command was brought up are shown as dashed lines. Parameters that have changed show their current values. Inputs vs. Knowledge compares the current input parameters to their original settings from the knowledge base. Parameters that are unchanged from the knowledge base show as dashed lines. Parameters that have changed show their current values.

WBS Reports WBS Project Cost / WBS Ongoing Support Cost The WBS Project Cost and WBS Ongoing Support Cost reports show schedule, hours, and costs for each work element in the estimate The WBS Project Cost report covers the Project phase of the estimate, while the WBS Ongoing Support report covers the ongoing support phase, but otherwise, they are identical.

WBS Total Ownership Cost The WBS Total Ownership Cost report shows total costs for each work element in the estimate.

WBS Activity Cost / WBS Activity Hours The WBS Activity Cost and WBS Activity Hours reports respectively show costs and hours by activity for each work element in the estimate.

WBS Cost and Hours By Fiscal Year Reports There are six WBS fiscal year reports: WBS Project Cost By Fiscal Year, WBS Ongoing Support Cost By Fiscal Year, WBS Total Cost By Fiscal Year, WBS Project Hours By Fiscal Year, WBS Ongoing Support Hours By Fiscal Year, and WBS Total Hours By Fiscal Year, each of which shows the indicated costs or hours for each work element in the estimate.


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WBS Project Cost, Ongoing Support, and Total Ownership By Rollup Currency In each of these reports, the costs columns show costs adjusted for the selected rollup's exchange rate, based on the formula: Rollup Exchange Rate/Element Exchange Rate This is true for all elements which are subordinate to the selected rollup, even if they are also rollups.

SEER-IT Charts Charts provide a visual representation of your estimate.

Floating Chart Window To view a chart in a separate window, right-click on that charts title tab (not the main body of the chart) in the Charts window, then select Open in New Window from the title tab's right-click menu. The chart will appear in a floating, resizable window. The right-click menu for the window contains the same options as the standard chart right-click menu, and the floating window includes the standard chart toolbar. To close a floating chart window, click on the X in the upper right-hand corner, just as you would with any window.

Chart Toolbar Each chart includes a toolbar (located just below the chart tabs) with the following basic tools:

Tool Description

Copy to Clipboard Copies the chart to the Windows clipboard.

Print Brings up the standard Windows Print dialog box.

3D/2D Toggle between three-dimensional and two-dimensional chart display.

Axes Settings Configure the chart's X and Y axes. (XY charts only.)

Point Labels Display/do not display labels for each data point.

Legend box Display/do not display the legend box. (Pie charts only.)

In addition to the standard chart toolbar options, some charts (such as the Annual Expenditure and Gantt charts) have special, chart-specific tools.


Allocation Charts

Activity Allocation Chart

The Allocation charts display breakouts of hours or costs by activity, labor category, or labor type. Each pie slice represents the portion of the total hours or total cost which is allocated to each item in the category represented by the chart. To see detailed values, place the mouse cursor on any of the slices.

Chart Description

Activity Breakout by activity: Analysis, Design, Procurement, Construction, Testing, Training, Distribution, Other, and Ongoing Support.

Labor Category Breakout by labor category: Management, Analyst, Architect, Software Development, Technician, Test/QA, Documentation, Training, Administrator, Operator, and Indirect Support.

Labor Type Breakout by labor type: In-House and Contractor.

To toggle between labor hours and cost in any of the Allocation charts, click the button.

Sensitivity Charts The extent to which costs, labor hours, or schedule for this work element will change as the selected parameter is varied over a given range.

Labor Cost Sensitivity Chart


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To see detailed values, place the mouse cursor on any of the plotted bars. The horizontal axis shows parameter variation in the appropriate units: quantity, percent, Least-Likely-Most values, time, etc. The vertical axis shows costs, labor hours, or schedule, depending on the chart:

Chart Description

Project Labor Hours Sensitivity of project labor hours to variations in the parameter.

Project Material Cost Sensitivity of project material costs to variations in the parameter.

Project Total Cost Sensitivity of project total costs to variations in the parameter.

Project Schedule Sensitivity of project schedule to variations in the parameter.

Ongoing Support Labor Hours

Sensitivity of ongoing support labor hours to variations in the parameter.

Ongoing Support Material Cost

Sensitivity of ongoing support material costs to variations in the parameter.

Ongoing Support Total Cost

Sensitivity of ongoing support total costs to variations in the parameter.

Total Labor Cost Sensitivity of total labor costs to variations in the parameter.

Total Cost of Ownership

Sensitivity of total cost of ownership to variations in the parameter.

Monte Carlo Risk Charts Monte Carlo Risk charts show the results of Monte Carlo sampling for project or ongoing support labor, schedule, or total cost risk. These reports are available only if the Monte Carlo Risk Calculations option has been enabled.

Project Labor Risk Chart

To see detailed values, place the mouse cursor on any of the plotted points. The horizontal axis shows statistical confidence levels, from 10% through 90%. Each represents the probability of an actual outcome lying below the estimated hours or cost.

The vertical axis shows labor (cost or hours), schedule, or total cost:


Chart Description

Project Labor Project labor hours or cost as a function of the completion of the project within budget. To toggle between labor and cost, click on the

button.

Project Schedule Project schedule as a function of timely completion.

Project Total Cost Project total cost as a function of the completion of the project within budget.

Ongoing Support Labor

Ongoing support labor hours or cost as a function of the completion of the project within budget. To toggle between labor and cost, click on the button.

Ongoing Support Schedule

Ongoing support schedule as a function of timely completion.

Ongoing Support Total Cost

Ongoing support total cost as a function of the completion of the project within budget.

Other Charts Risk Chart and Ongoing Support Risk Chart These two charts show labor hours or labor cost as a function of the probability of completion within budget. They assist in quantifying the uncertainty in the element’s labor. To see detailed values, place the mouse cursor on any of the plotted points. The horizontal axis shows statistical confidence levels, from 10% through 90%. Each represents the probability of an actual outcome lying below the estimated hours or cost.

The vertical axis shows labor hours or cost; to toggle between labor and cost, click on the button.

Chart Description

Project Labor Risk Project labor hours or project labor cost as a function of the probability of completion within budget.

Ongoing Support Ongoing support labor hours or ongoing support labor cost as a function of the probability of completion within budget.


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Gantt Chart and Project Activity Gantt Chart The Gantt charts display rollup or activity schedule.

Gantt Chart

You can change the start date for a work element by moving its bar on the Gantt chart. To do this, select the bar and hold the left mouse button down, moving the bar to the left (for an earlier start date) or the right (for a later start date). SEER-IT will display a dialog box warning you that the computed start date will be overwritten. Click on OK to overwrite the start date.

Gantt Chart Description

Gantt The schedule for the current rollup and all of its subordinate work elements.

Change Series menu: The toolbar for the Gantt chart includes the Change Series option, which allows you to select which schedule items (Project and Ongoing Support) will be displayed.

Project Activity Gantt The schedule for eight Project activities for the selected element: Analysis, Design, Procurement, Construction, Testing, Training, Distribution, and Other. (Ongoing Support is not included.)

Annual Expenditure Chart

Annual Expenditure Chart


This chart displays four types of annual expenditure for the selected work element : Project Labor Cost, Project Material Cost, Ongoing Support Labor Cost, & Ongoing Support Material Cost.

To view the portions of the bars representing a single type of expenditure only, hover the mouse over any chart element representing that expenditure type -- either its label in the legend, or its color in the chart itself. Hover the mouse over a portion of a bar to display the yearly cost of that expenditure.

The Annual expenditure chart includes the following special chart toolbar menus: Change Chart: Represent separate costs with either side-by-side or stacked bars. Change Series: Select the cost items (Labor/Material for Project/Ongoing Support) to be displayed.

Activity Staff by Month Chart and Labor Category Staff by Month Chart The Activity Staff by Month chart is a stacked chart displaying the recommended levels of staffing for each activity by calendar month. The Labor Category Staff by Month chart is similar, displaying the recommended levels of staffing for all project activities or for the ongoing support activity for each labor category by calendar month.

Activity Staff by Month Chart

Project Parameters in SEER-IT Select Options / Set Project Parameters to bring up the Project Parameters dialog box. It has four tabs: General, Monte Carlo, Terminology, and Currency and Exchange Rate.

General Project Parameters Parameter Description

Line/Outline Numbering

Controls the type of numbering displayed in the project work breakdown structure. Line numbering will sequentially number each work element regardless of its indenture level. Outline numbering will apply a traditional outline numbering scheme starting with the topmost element, which is 1.


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Project Outline Start Number

Represents the starting number or string used for the project element; it will be used for subsequent outline numbers. For example, if you set the Project Outline Start Number to 57A, then the first element would be numbered 57A.1. This input is only applicable when outline numbering is enabled.

Fiscal Year Starting Month

Determines the month in which the fiscal year is to begin. This input is used to schedule the time phased reports. If your fiscal year aligns with the calendar year, leave this input at the default value of 1.

Base Year Base year for user-provided and SEER-IT cost outputs.

Productive Hours Per Month

Used in calculating schedule; it determines how many productive hours a full time equivalent will work in a given month, excluding holiday, vacation, illness or PTO.

Material Costs Calculation

Controls how and when material cost is scheduled on time phased reports. All At Activity Start Month will put material cost in the first month of the phase in which the material cost is incurred. Prorated will evenly spread the material cost across the number of months of the phase in which the material cost is incurred.

Unit of Measure Choose between Imperial (inches, feet) or Metric (centimeters, meters) as the preferred unit of measure for dimensional related inputs. Currently only the Facilities estimation element has inputs which will be impacted by this setting.

Inflation Tables In Use

See Editing Inflation Tables, below.

Format Outputs – Precision

Determines the level of precision (e.g. number of decimal places) that will be displayed on the SEER-IT reports. Outputs are categorized into cost, hours, quantity, schedule, and staff.

Editing Inflation Tables The button which you click in the Inflation Table In Use section of the Set Project Parameters dialog box determines the way in which you use the Edit Inflation Table dialog box:

Button Description

New The File Name, Description, and Value fields are initially blank. The Year field is set to the default. The data which you enter will be saved in a new inflation table file, which will be listed (by description) in the Project Parameters dialog box's Inflation Table In Use pull-down list.


Copy Opens a copy of the inflation table currently selected in the Inflation Table In Use list. The file name will consist of the words "Copy of" followed by the name of the current file (e.g., Copy of 2009DEF). The other fields will contain all of the data from the original table. You can edit all fields. The table will be saved in a new inflation table file.

Edit Opens the inflation table currently selected in the Inflation Table In Use list. You cannot edit the File Name. You can edit the other fields; any changes that you make will be saved to the original inflation table file.

Edit Inflation Table Dialog Box This dialog box allows you to completely re-edit, or create from scratch, an inflation table. A full 20 years of inflation data are allowed, with the base year specified by you. Inflation tables are used to correctly cost multi-year projects.

Item Description

File Properties group Click on the plus/minus box to the left of the group name to show or hide the file properties fields:

File Name Enter the name under which the inflation table file will be saved. Note: The contents of this field cannot be changed when you are editing an existing inflation table.

Description A required short description, or title, of your table. When you select an inflation table, this description string will appear on the list of choices.

First Year The starting year of your inflation data. It must be between 1960 and 2080. The default First Year is 2000.

Year and Value (Labor)

Click on the plus/minus box to show or hide the list of labor year/value fields. Enter the inflation rate for labor for each year in the list.

Year and Value (Material)

Click on the plus/minus box to show or hide the list of material year/value fields. Enter the inflation rate for material for each year in the list.

Enter inflation rates for each year as decimal numbers representing the percent inflation: enter 2.4% as 2.4000, rather than 1.024.

Monte Carlo Tab Enables and configures Monte Carlo risk calculations. SEER-IT includes several Monte Carlo risk reports and charts.


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Item Description

Monte Carlo Iterations

The number of iterations to be performed during Project/Rollup risk analysis. 100 iterations is the default, and this allows for estimate results having a normally acceptable level of uncertainty. The more iterations, the lower the uncertainty, but the more time required for calculation.

Assumed correlation between work element outcomes:

Fully correlated All work elements are dependent on each other. An identical probability setting is given to all work elements during a given iteration.

For example, if one work element's hours are at the predicted 10% level, then all work element hours will lie at their predicted 10% levels.

Fully uncorrelated (Default) All work elements are independent of each other. Random probability settings are given to each WBS element.

For example, if one work element's hours are at the predicted 10% level, then all work element hours can still vary between 1% and 99% of their predicted hours.

Enable Project/Rollup Risk Calculations

Enable Monte Carlo processing at the Project/Rollup level.

Enable Element Level Calculations

Enable Monte Carlo processing at the work element level.

Work element selection list

Select the work element types for which SEER-IT will calculate Monte Carlo risk analysis.

Terminology Tab You may customize the terminology used by SEER-IT to make it more aligned with your organization. You may set terminology for activity names, labor category or role names, the names used for work element types, labor types, and even the terms used for "project" and "ongoing support". Setting the terminology will be used on the SEER-IT reports, charts and input screens. The terminology you define will stick with the project that you currently have open.


Item Description

Term list Lists the terms which have user-customizable names. They are listed by category:

Activities Labor Categories Work Element Types

Labor Type High Level Estimate Breakout Architecture/Design

To view or hide the items in a category, click on the + or - sign next to the category name. In the item list, the standard name is in the left column; you can enter your custom name in the right-hand column.

Description Displays the standard name for the selected item.

Currency and Exchange Rate Tab The Currency and Exchange Rate parameters apply to material and default composite labor rates when used. These costs and rates are built into the models as U.S. Dollars.

Item Description

Exchange Rate The exchange rate is used to carry out any necessary conversions. The initial exchange rate value is automatically set by the Code & Symbol selection, which you may override as required.

Code Select a Code to automatically set the Exchange Rate and Currency.

Currency Automatically set by the Code & Symbol selection.

Edit Edit the exchange rate in the Edit Exchange Rates dialog box.

Code & Symbol Select a Code & Symbol to automatically set the Exchange Rate and Currency.

Multi-Currency Use this option if you need to define specific elements of your project in different currencies. When the multi-currency option is activated, Currency and Exchange Rate parameters are enabled at the work element level. These parameters are located on the Labor Rates, Costs & Factors tab, at the bottom of the parameters list.

Edit Exchange Rates Dialog Box The Edit Exchange Rates dialog box allows you to edit the exchange rate for individual currencies. You have the choice of saving the edited rates as the new default rates, or of only using them in the current estimate. The Edit Exchange Rates dialog box lists all of the currencies which can be used with SEER-IT. The United States Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Euro are listed first, followed by all other currencies in alphabetical order (based on the currency name).


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Item Description

Code The three letter ISO 4217 code for each currency.

Currency The name of the currency, including the country or region where it is issued or used.

Symbol The currency symbol.

Exchange Rate The exchange rate, taken by default from SEER-H Data.INI. To change the exchange rate, enter the new rate and click on OK. The new exchange rate will be used throughout the project.

OK Click on OK to exit the dialog box, saving the changes that you have made. After you exit the dialog box, you should go to Estimate/Refresh Exchange Rates to update existing work elements with the new set of exchange rates.

Cancel Exit without saving any changes.

Save As Default Save the exchange rates that you entered as the new defaults. The new rates will be used by future projects until you change them.

Help View the help page.

SEER-IT Knowledge Bases Knowledge bases help to build estimates quickly and accurately by providing default parameter settings for common estimation scenarios. SEER-IT includes the following knowledge bases:

Task Type Knowledge Bases Task Type knowledge bases defines the type of task that you need to model; they are specific to the work element type. The !No Knowledge knowledge base applies to all work elements, except Rollup and Additional Items work elements, which do not use any knowledge bases.

End User Services Knowledge Base Description

Desktop, locked Desktop PCs, assumed to be locked and managed. Assumes a 3-5 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Desktop Users if known.


Desktop, unmanaged Desktop PCs where the user has access to install applications and make changes. Assumes a 3-5 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Desktop Users if known.

Mobile phone Mobile phones, assumes up to two basic configurations. Assumes a 1-2 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Mobile Device Users if known.

Notebook, locked Notebook computer, assumed to be locked and managed. Assumes a 2-4 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Notebook Users if known.

Notebook, unmanaged

Notebook computer where the user has access to install applications and make changes. Assumes a 2-4 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Notebook Users if known.

Smartphone, basic Smartphones with basic system application support. Up to 4 different configurations (Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows). Assumes a 1-2 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Mobile Device Users if known.

Smartphone, full Smartphones fully configured with productivity and business application support. Up to 4 different configurations (Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows). Assumes a 1-2 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Mobile Device Users if known.

Tablet, basic Tablet with basic system application support. Assumes a 2-3 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Other Device Users.

Tablet, full Tablet fully configured with productivity and business application support. Assumes a 2-3 year service life. Enter specific assumptions for Other Device Users.

Facilities Knowledge Base Description

Voice/data lines, large multi-level facility

Installation and checkout of both data and voice lines in a multi-level level office facility. Specific inputs for Data Ports and Voice Ports should be entered if known.


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Voice/data lines, standard office facility

Installation and checkout of both data and voice lines in a single level standard office facility. Specific inputs for Data Ports and Voice Ports should be entered if known.

Infrastructure Services Knowledge Base Description

Blade server A single blade. Assumes a single blade in an existing blade system. Use the number of servers to account for additional blades. If you need to configure an entire blade system, see the Blade system example which accounts for external storage, power and cooling.

Blade system A blade computing system comprised of the blades and blade enclosure. Blade systems are designed to optimize use of physical space are reduce power usage.

Mainframe A mainframe computing system with high performance and security requirements.

Networking equipment, Ethernet

Standard Ethernet networking equipment. Use the inputs for routers, bridges, etc. to define the number and type of equipment items being installed.

Networking equipment, fiber

Fiber based networking equipment. Use the inputs for routers, bridges, etc. to define the number and type of items being installed.

Rack Server, 1U Form Rack-mount server, 1 Rack Unit in height.

Rack Server, 2U Form Rack-mount server, 2 Rack Units in height.

Rack Server, 4U Form Rack-mount server, 4 Rack Units in height

Rack-mount system Rack-mount computing system including the rack units and rack infrastructure. If the number of rack units is known, enter this in the number of servers.

Server w/ high availability cluster

Notional high availability server cluster with 2 nodes.

Server w/ load balancing cluster

Notional load balancing server cluster consisting of 2 nodes.

Server w/local storage

Single basic server that uses local storage resources. This can be scaled up to account for multiple servers and configurations by setting the Servers and Unique Configurations inputs.


Server w/SAN storage

Single server plus an external storage area network. This can be scaled up to account for multiple servers, configurations and storage devices by setting the Servers, Unique Configurations and Storage Devices inputs respectively.

Server, Linux/Unix cluster

Linux/Unix based server cluster.

Server, Wintel cluster Wintel based server cluster.

Storage tier 1 High availability RAID storage area network (SAN) suitable for tier 1 data (e.g. highest availability and criticality).

Storage tier 2 Storage suitable for tier 2 data (high availability)

Storage tier 3 Storage suitable for tier 3 data (archive data, rarely used data).

Tower system Midrange tower configured system. Towers have lower purchase cost, but limited expandability and capacity.

VPN Appliance Virtual private network hardware device.

Service Desk Knowledge Base Description

Application, critical Help desk (tier 1) support for a critical business application. Requires the number of users per application to be entered.

Application, non-critical

Help desk (tier 1) support for a non-critical business application. Requires the number of users per application to be entered.

End user system, locked

Help desk (tier 1) support for end user systems that are locked so that users cannot make major changes without administrator intervention. Requires the number of systems to be entered.

End user system, unmanaged

Help desk (tier 1) support for end user systems where users do not require administrator intervention to install applications and make changes. Requires the number of systems to be entered.

Servers or network devices

Help desk (tier 1) support for servers and network devices. Requires the number of servers or network devices to be entered.

Smartphone, basic Help desk (tier 1) support for smartphones that use simple standard configurations. Requires the number of mobile devices to be entered.


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Smartphone, full Help desk (tier 1) support for smartphones fully configured with productivity and business application support. If any custom business applications are to be supported, enter the number of applications and users per application in the application support section. Requires the number of mobile devices to be entered.

Tablet, basic Help desk (tier 1) support for tablets that use simple standard configurations. Requires the number of mobile devices to be entered.

Tablet, full Help desk (tier 1) support for tablets fully configured with productivity and business application support. If any custom business applications are to be supported, enter the number of applications and users per application in the application support section. Requires the number of mobile devices to be entered.

Software/Database Services Knowledge Base Description

Application server Application server including such things as web services, DBMS, transaction server, APIs and other components to support a hosted application.

Application, Desktop COTS

Off the shelf, commercially available desktop application. Set the number of users to determine how many setups of the application need to be accommodated. Excludes any database setups which can be modeled separately.

Application, Desktop internally developed

Internally developed standalone desktop application. Set the number of users to determine how many setups of the application need to be accommodated. Excludes any database setup which can be modeled separately.

Application, Desktop vendor supplied

Vendor supplied application software. Set the number of users to determine how many setups of the application need to be accommodated. Excludes any database updates which can be modeled separately.

Application, enterprise with fat client

Enterprise application with fat client. Assumes the application is deployed with 2-4 instances. Excludes any database setup which can be modeled separately.

Application, enterprise with no client

Enterprise application with no client. Assumes the application is deployed with 2-4 instances. Excludes any database setup which can be modeled separately.


Application, enterprise with thin client

Enterprise application with thin client. Assumes the application is deployed with 2-4 instances. Excludes any database setup which can be modeled separately.

Application, ERP module

Vendor supplied ERP module. Use the Applications input to indicate the number of modules. Number of users should be users per module. This effort excludes database setup and support. It also excludes any customization or RICEF object development.

Data migration only Includes only effort associated with migrating 10- 50 GB of data. Enter specific assumptions for the volume of data to be migrated if known. This is effort for data migration which involves conversion of a data from one format to another, for example going from one vendor's database type to another. The data migration effort will likely involve very specific conversion of data types and business rules related to the data, and conversion requirements will go beyond what basic migration tools can accommodate.

Database, user setup Database that is replicated on more than one server plus effort for setup and validation of setup of end users.

Database replicated installation

Database that is replicated on more than one server. If the database is an upgrade or migration, the number of databases should be entered as existing.

Database standalone installation

A standalone database on a single server. If the database is an upgrade or migration, the number of databases should be entered as existing.

DBMS Effort associated with the setup and installation of a new DBMS such as SQL Server or Oracle.

Messaging server Server software and APIs to support messaging applications. Assumes 2-4 instances of the application server.

Virtual machine, application

Process or application virtual machine designed to run a specific application or process. Such virtual machines are generally platform independent and use such technologies as the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) or the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). If multiple instances of the virtual machine are required, use the physical locations parameter to designate the number of instances.


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Virtual machine, Linux/Unix

Linux/Unix VM instance. If multiple instances of the virtual machine are required, use the physical locations/instances parameter to designate the number of instances.

Virtual machine, system

A system virtual machine instance comprised of a complete operating system platform and managed by a virtual machine monitor or hypervisor. If multiple instances of the virtual machine are required, use the physical locations parameter to designate the number of instances.

Virtual machine, Wintel

Wintel VM instance. If multiple instances of the virtual machine are required, use the physical locations/instances parameter to designate the number of instances.

Web service Effort associated with web services such as those used by a SOA based system.

Training Knowledge Base Description

Application courseware

Courseware development effort for application training for traditional classroom setting with hands-on case study exercises.

Computer based training course

Courseware development effort for application training to be done as computer based training.

Orientation courseware

Courseware development for new orientation training to be done in a traditional lecture format. Orientation training is considered to be comprehensive and can last 3 days or more.

Process courseware Courseware development for new process training to be done in a traditional lecture format.

Purchased training Costs for a single purchased training course that runs about 3 days and can accommodate 15 students. General purchased costs are included, but should be substituted for specific cost data when available.

Traditional classroom training with case study

Courseware development effort for application training to be done in a traditional classroom with case study exercises.


User Documentation Knowledge Base Description

Online help Online help content for an application. Online help will interact with the application to provide context sensitive information. The online help covers basic user documentation that describes key application concepts and definitions. Typically fewer than 100 help topics.

Reference manual Application reference manual. Assumes electronic format only. A reference manual is considered to be detailed user documentation that details all application features, concepts and definitions. The target audience for a reference manual might be the application's power users. May be several hundred pages.

User guide User guide for an application. Assumes electronic format only. A user guide is considered to be basic user documentation that describes key application concepts and definitions. Typically under 100 pages.

Category Knowledge Bases Further defines the task, sometimes categorizing the type of technologies used.

End User Services Knowledge Base Description

Heavy user base, fixed desktops

Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 desktop users with 5 - 15 unique desktop configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Heavy user base, mobile devices

Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 mobile device users with 5 - 15 unique device configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Heavy user base, notebooks

Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 notebook users with 5 - 15 unique notebook configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Light user base, fixed desktops

Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 desktop users with 1 - 3 unique desktop configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


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Light user base, mobile devices

Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 mobile device users with 1 - 3 unique device configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Light user base, notebooks

Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 notebook users with 1 - 3 unique notebook configurations. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Facilities Knowledge Base Description

Existing contemporary facility

An existing but contemporary office facility which has been constructed so that cables and ports are easily installed.

Existing older facility An existing older facility which has been constructed without consideration for supporting voice and data cables and ports.

New modern facility A new modern office facility which has been constructed so that cables and ports are readily installed.

Infrastructure Services Knowledge Base Description

Heavy user base / critical

Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users in multiple locations with high reliability requirements. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Heavy user base / non-critical

Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users in multiple locations with low reliability requirements. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Light user base / critical

Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users in a single location with high reliability requirements. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Light user base / non-critical

Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users in a single location with low reliability requirements. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Service Desk Knowledge Base Description

Basic SLA Minimum level support agreement in terms of acknowledgement and resolution. Most issues are resolved within a work week.

Gold SLA Highest level support agreement in terms of acknowledgement and resolution. Most issues are resolved within 2 hours.

Silver SLA Moderately high level support agreement in terms of acknowledgement and resolution. Most issues are resolved within a work day.

Software/Database Services Knowledge Base Description

Data Warehouse Sets up inputs for a database that is used for analytical purposes such as decision support or business intelligence. This type of database will generally not have a high volume of transactions, but rather will have data collected and summarized from operational business systems.


Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users in multiple organizations and locations on a system that is critical to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users in multiple organizations and locations on a system that is not key to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users in a single organization and location on a system that is critical to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users in a single organization and location on a system that is not key to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Transactional Database

Sets up inputs for a database that is used with transactional system. This type of database will have higher volume and more frequent transactions per user and will generally be associated with a system critical to business operations.


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Training Knowledge Base Description


Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users/trainees for training on a system that is critical to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 1000 - 3000 users/trainees for training on a system that is not key to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users/trainees for training on a system that is critical to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.


Sets up inputs for 100 - 300 users/trainees for training on a system that is not key to their job function. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

User Documentation Knowledge Base Description

New application Documentation is being developed for a single new application. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your scenario.

Upgraded application Documentation is being developed for a single existing application that is being updated. It is recommended that these figures be customized for your specific scenario.

Scope Knowledge Bases Defines the scope of the estimate in terms of activities and phases.

Common to Most Work Elements (except Service Desk) Knowledge Base Description

!No Knowledge No knowledge regarding the scope of the project or work element.

_New Project Estimates only the upfront effort for a new project. Any ongoing support estimates will be excluded.

_New Project + 5 Years Ongoing Support

Estimates capture effort for a new setup/installation/ deployment. Also includes 5 years of ongoing support. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.


_Ongoing Support Only 5 Years

Estimates 5 years of ongoing support effort. Any upfront project estimates will be excluded.

Use the support duration input to specify support durations other than 5 years.

Decommission Estimates will capture effort to decommission hardware, database or software system. For hardware, decommission effort includes updates to inventory systems and disposal efforts. Any salvage or resale value of hardware resources are not include as part of this estimate. For applications, decommission effort include planning, test and checkout of the retired application. For databases, decommission effort includes planning, backup, and archival of the database being taken offline. Any ongoing support estimates will be excluded.

Distribution Only + 5 Years Ongoing Support

Includes only basic distribution effort plus 5 years of ongoing support. Any non-recurring upfront effort for analysis, design, construction and test is excluded from estimates.

Major Upgrade Project

Estimates capture effort for a major upgrade of the task type. For applications a major upgrade relates to an enhancement project. Any ongoing support estimates will be excluded.

Major Upgrade Project + 5 Years Ongoing Support

Estimates will capture effort for a major upgrade of the task type. For applications a major upgrade relates to an enhancement project. Also includes 5 years of ongoing support. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.

Migration Project Estimates will capture effort for a migration project. For hardware items, this includes moving from one system type item to another and may involve an OS change. For database, a migration covers the effort to move a database from one platform to another with minimal change. This usually does not require data migration, especially if the vendor or application group provides good tools or scripts to support the upgrade. If there are data migration efforts that go beyond this, enter the GB of data requiring migration. Any ongoing support estimates will be excluded.


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Migration Project + 5 Years Ongoing Support

Estimates will capture effort for a migration project. For hardware items, this includes moving from one system type item to another and may involve an OS change. For database, a migration covers the effort to move a database from one platform to another with minimal change. Also includes 5 years of ongoing support. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.

Upgrade Project Estimates will capture effort for an upgrade of the task type specified. For applications and databases, this will be considered to be a minor update or maintenance release. For databases, this includes backup and restoration of the existing database being upgraded. Any ongoing support estimates will be excluded.

Upgrade Project + 5 Years Ongoing Support

Estimates will capture effort for an upgrade of the task type specified. For applications and databases, this will be considered to be a minor update or maintenance release. Also includes 5 years of ongoing support. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.

Service Desk Work Elements Knowledge Base Description

!No Knowledge No knowledge regarding the scope of the project or work element.

12X5 Dedicated Coverage, 5 Years Ongoing Support

Assumes business hour regional service desk coverage with dedicated resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.

12X5 Shared Coverage, 5 Years Ongoing Support

Assumes business hour regional service desk coverage with shared resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.


Assumes near round the clock service desk coverage with dedicated resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.



Assumes near round the clock service desk coverage with shared resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.


Assumes round the clock service desk coverage with dedicated resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.


Assumes round the clock service desk coverage with shared resources. Support activity is assumed to be evenly distributed throughout the day and throughout the week. Use the support duration input for durations other than 5 years.

Economic Factors Knowledge Bases This is generally used to load default labor rates for the different roles.

(Applies to work elements as indicated) Knowledge Base Description

~Default Rates, General

General default labor rates for all IT roles, based on averages across a wide set of IT labor rate surveys for a variety of IT roles across a range of industries.

~Default Rates, Application Development

Default labor rates based on an application development oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to application development.

~Default Rates, End User Services

Default labor rates based on an end user services oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to end user services.

~Default Rates, Infrastructure Services

Default labor rates based on an infrastructure services oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to infrastructure services.


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~Default Rates, Service Desk

Default labor rates based on a service desk oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to service desk.

~Default Rates, Software/Database Services

Default labor rates based on software & database oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to software & database services.

~Default Rates, Training

Default labor rates based on a training oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to training.

~Default Rates, User Documentation

Default labor rates based on a documentation oriented subset of IT labor rate survey data. General default labor rates are used for roles that are not related to documentation.

Classification Knowledge Bases You may classify effort as "in-house", "contractor" or some combination.

Other Knowledge Bases This category is left open for custom knowledge bases to be built by your organization.

Changing Knowledge Base Selections You can use Estimate / Load Individual Knowledge Base to change a WBS element's knowledge bases at any time, although this requires some caution, since it can change the parameter values that you have already entered, as well as those established by other knowledge bases.

Building and Maintaining SEER-IT Knowledge Bases You can view, modify, and create knowledge bases, just as if they were SEER-IT projects. You can create a new knowledge base by modifying an existing one, or by creating one from scratch. In many cases, modifying an existing knowledge base will be the easiest method.

Opening and Reviewing Knowledge Base Files To open a knowledge base and view its settings in the Parameter window:

1. Close any open projects or start a new instance of SEER-IT 2. Select the Tools / Maintain Knowledge Base command. You will see the Maintain

Knowledge Bases dialog box. 3. In the Maintain Knowledge Bases dialog box, select the kbase that you wish to edit or

view and click on the Edit button.

The knowledge base will open up as a project with a single element. You will see parameter settings associated with the knowledge base at the right. You can make changes to the knowledge base, but if you do, it is recommended that you save it under a new name.


Creating a New Knowledge Base from an Existing One To create a knowledge base from an existing one:

1. Open an existing knowledge base file, as described in Opening and Reviewing Knowledge Base Files, above.

2. Enter a new Description for the knowledge base. Any characters are allowed. 3. Modify the parameters to suit your requirements. Do not create any work elements.

When you have set all the parameter values correctly, proceed to the next step.

4. When you are ready to save, select Save As from the File Menu. You will be asked to verify the description and select a category for the knowledge base.

Creating a New Knowledge Base from Scratch To create a knowledge base from scratch:

1. Close any open projects or start a new instance of SEER-IT

2. Select Tools / Maintain Knowledge Base. You will see the Maintain Knowledge Bases dialog box.

3. In the Maintain Knowledge Bases dialog box, click on the Add button. The program will display the Create/Modify Work Element dialog box.

4. Select the element type for which you want to build a knowledge base (e.g. Purchased Hardware, End User Services, etc.).

5. Enter a Description for the knowledge base. Any characters are allowed. Click OK to exit the Create/Modify WBS Element dialog box.

6. Enter the parameter values for your knowledge base, as you would for a project. Do not create any work elements. When you have set all the parameter values correctly, proceed to the next step.

7. From the File menu, select Save As. You will be asked verify the description and select a category for the knowledge base.

Whichever method you use, the next time you create a new project or work element, your new knowledge base should appear in the category to which you assigned it.


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Risk Analysis SEER-IT forecasts outcomes based on a set of estimating assumptions. Often in forecasting, no single number can accurately represent the future; only a range of probably future outcomes can. The least, likely and most ranges that you set are a reflection of your uncertainly about the future.

If you were able to specify SEER-IT's inputs with absolute certainty, you could produce an estimate with absolute certainty. You will rarely find absolute certainty about future outcomes, however. To express this uncertainty, you enter most parameters as a range, from least likely to most likely. SEER-IT uses these inputs to form probability distributions, which become inputs to its calculation functions:

Because there is uncertainty in your parameter inputs, there will be a range of possible outcomes in the resulting estimate. This is natural and good, for an estimate range allows you to make more informed risk-based project management decisions.

Risk at the Lower WBS Level The estimate that you see on the SEER-IT reports is based on the range of inputs and the specific level of the probability input. The more your inputs vary, the greater the variation on the estimated outcomes.


Your parametric inputs...

Each WBS element has a probability input which will determine where on the cost range your point estimate lies and is often interpreted as the confidence level you have in your estimate. As an alternative to setting probabilities, you can simply view the estimate range in the Risk chart or report.

Are converted into distributions...

Resulting in a final outcome.

{1, 5, 7} {Nom, Nom+, Hi} {.025, .027, .030}

Nom+ Hi Nom

5 71

.027 .030 .025

SEER Calculation

Risk at the Summary Rollup WBS Level In order to provide a summary of cost or schedule at the rollup level, a sampling technique called Monte Carlo sampling is needed to give statistically valid estimates. Each lower level work element estimate is not a static point, but rather a distribution of possible outcomes, as shown:

When summing individual outcomes, you cannot usually describe the resulting sample by simply adding up the old statistics arithmetically. For instance, if events from the above two independent distributions each were summed, the new median of summed events most likely would not be 7, and perhaps not even close to 7. To derive a correct median value, and other statistics of interest, we use a procedure known as Monte Carlo sampling.

Monte Carlo sampling is a statistical process in which values are repeatedly drawn randomly from existing distributions, and then combined into a new distribution, from which correct statistics can be calculated. Each draw is called an iteration; the more iterations, the larger the sample, and the more precise the resulting statistics will be, up to the point where no additional precision is needed.


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Consider the example already mentioned. When the samples are summed statistically, the new median is 6.6, rather than the arithmetic sum 7.0. We use the resulting distribution to calculate the mode and other useful statistics.

To enable the Monte Carlo features, go to the Monte Carlo tab of the Project Parameters dialog. Check on the option to enable Project/Rollup Risk calculations. You may optionally turn on this Monte Carlo sampling for lower level WBS elements as well.

When Monte Carlo calculations are enabled, you may view the various Monte Carlo Risk reports and charts. Since these reports and charts are based on Monte Carlo calculations, the values which they display may not be the same as those shown on the standard Risk chart and Risk Summary report.

Administrative Tasks In addition to typical day-to-day use of SEER-IT, there are tasks which may need to be performed only occasionally, usually by a system administrator or someone with similar responsibilities. For more information on administrative tasks, see the SEER-IT help system.

SEER-IT API SEER-IT supports the standard SEER server mode commands, allowing you to create and modify projects and work elements, set knowledge bases, and enter parameter values. Server mode includes an automation interface that enables it to be run from, and send data to, other applications.


For a more detailed description of SEER-IT server mode commands and their use, see the following pages in the SEER-IT help system:

Administrative Tasks: Server Mode API Administrative Tasks: Server Mode Commands

Administrative Tasks: Running Server Mode Commands

SEER-IT Settings.INI The SEER-IT Settings.INI file is a text file used to store general SEER-IT settings, as well as data for specific work elements. Some work-element-specific settings can be customized by the user, including the lists used by the Purchased Software/Purchased Hardware/Additional Items Quantity Unit of Measure parameter. You can edit SEER-IT Settings.INI using Notepad or any other text editor.

SEER-IT Settings.ini File Location The SEER-IT Settings.INI file is a text file used to store general SEER-IT settings, as well as data for specific work elements. Some work-element-specific settings can be customized by the user.

SEER-IT Settings.INI is located in: (Vista and Windows 7, 8, and 10) \ProgramData\SEER\SEER-IT 2.2\ (Windows XP) \Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SEER\SEER-IT 2.2\ Note: Do not make changes to any section of SEER-IT Settings.INI other than those specifically described in this user's guide, in the SEER-IT help system, or by Galorath support. Many of the items in SEER-IT Settings.INI are controlled by SEER-IT menu commands, such as Options/Project Parameters and Options/Configuration, and should be set by means of the SEER-IT user interface, rather than by editing the INI file. Be sure to save a backup copy of SEER-IT Settings.INI before making any changes.

The SEER Project Database The SEER Project Database is an optional edition feature of SEER-IT which allows you to save SEER-IT projects for later use and reference. You can save a project with multiple, numbered revisions, including major baselines and incremental revisions.

Please contact Galorath Incorporated's Sales department or go to www.galorath.com to find out more about the SEER Project Database.


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Editing the Catalog Database The following instructions assume that you will be customizing a copy of the default SEER-IT catalog file, SEER-IT_Lookup.xls, and placing it in a location of your choice. These instructions can be adapted to other file formats and working arrangements. Note that some details (column names and formats, worksheet names, or file names and formats), may change with subsequent releases. It should, however, be possible to adapt these instructions to accommodate such changes.

Worksheets SEER-IT_Lookup.xls includes the following worksheets:

Worksheet Description

Descriptions The Descriptions worksheet lists the individual catalog items for the Purchased Hardware and Purchased Software work elements.

These are the items which will be listed in the Description pane of the Search Database dialog box when you click on the Search Catalog button in either the Description or Type input dialog boxes for Purchased Hardware or Purchased Software.

Software Types The Software Types worksheet lists the software types which will appear in the Types pane of the Search Database dialog box for Purchased Software.

In order for an item in the Descriptions worksheet to be listed in the catalog for Purchased Software, its type (as shown in the Types column) must be listed on the Software Types worksheet.

Hardware Types The Hardware Types worksheet lists the Hardware types which will appear in the Types pane of the Search Database dialog box for Purchased Hardware.

In order for an item in the Descriptions worksheet to be listed in the catalog for Purchased Hardware, its type (as shown in the Types column) must be listed on the Hardware Types worksheet.

Additional Items The Additional Items worksheet lists the individual catalog items for Additional Items inputs and work elements.

These are the items which will be listed in the Description pane of the Search Database dialog box when you click on the Search Catalog button in the main Additional Items (Description) input dialog box.


AdditionalItems Types

The AdditionalItems Types worksheet lists the Additional Items types which will appear in the Types pane of the Search Database dialog box for Additional Items.

In order for an item in the Additional Items worksheet to be listed in the catalog for Additional Items, its type (as shown in the Types column) must be listed on the AdditionalItems Types worksheet.

UUID Generator All catalog items require a UUID; this is the randomly-generated 32-digit hexadecimal identification number commonly used for a variety of Windows-based processes.

The UUID Generator will generate a new UUID every time that the worksheet recalculates (i.e., when a cell is changed, or you press F9).

To use it, select a newly-generated UUID, copy it, and paste it into the item's UUID field on the Descriptions or Additional Items worksheet.

Note: The UUID Generator requires Microsoft Excel 2003 or later in order to generate new UUIDs. This does not affect existing UUIDs, or your ability to edit the worksheets, which are themselves compatible with Excel 2000. It also does not affect SEER-IT's ability to read data from SEER-IT_Lookup.xls; it can read the data even if Excel is not installed on your system. It simply means that Excel 2000 users will need to use another method of providing new catalog items with UUIDs.

The columns in the Descriptions worksheet correspond to the parameter inputs used to characterize Purchased Hardware and Purchased Software items. In a similar manner, the columns in the Additional items worksheet correspond to the detailed Additional Items inputs.

In both cases, the column heading names are the same as the names of the corresponding inputs. When you move items into the catalog, data formats and ranges should match those of the corresponding fields in the work elements which will use the data.

Connecting to the Catalog The catalog connection defaults are:

• File type: Microsoft Excel • File name: SEER-IT_Lookup.xls • File location: SEER-IT program directory • Connection type: ODBC • ODBC driver: Microsoft Excel • ODBC Driver version: Excel 97-2000 • Data Source Name: SEER-IT2-2_Lookup


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The basic catalog connection requirements are:

• Connection type:: ODBC • Data Source Name: SEER-IT2-2_Lookup

In addition, the actual catalog data must be organized into worksheets, tables, or the equivalent, with column or field names and formats that match the work element inputs, as described in Editing the Catalog.

Beyond these requirements, SEER-IT is generally quite flexible its connection to the catalog data, which may be in a variety of formats (such as Microsoft Excel 2007 or later, Microsoft Access, or SQL), and in any accessible local or network location. The following instructions assume that you will be using a copy of the default file, SEER-IT_Lookup.xls, stored under another name and in a location other than the default location. These instructions also assume that you logged in with an account that gives you Administrative privileges on your system. They apply to Windows 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

Changing an Existing SEER-IT2-2_Lookup ODBC Connection

Typically, when SEER-IT is installed, it will create an ODBC connection to the default SEER-IT_Lookup.xls file in the SEER-IT program directory. To change this connection so that it points to your custom catalog file:

In the Windows Control Panels, open the ODBC control panel (either under Administrative Tools, or when you display all control panels by icon).

1. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box, select the System DSN tab.

2. Select SEER-IT2-2_Lookup in the System Data Sources list, then click on the Configure button.

3. In the ODBC Microsoft Excel Setup dialog box, click on the Select Workbook button. 4. In the Select Workbook dialog box, locate the file which you will be using as the

catalog, then select it and click on OK.

5. Click on OK in the ODBC Microsoft Excel Setup and ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog boxes.

Now, when you click on the Search Catalog button in SEER-IT, the Search Database dialog box should show the contents of your custom catalog.

Creating a New ODBC Connection

If no ODBC connection to the SEER-IT_Lookup.xls file exists on the system in question, You can create one:

1. In the Windows Control Panels, open the ODBC control panel (either under Administrative Tools, or when you display all control panels by icon).


2. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box, select the System DSN tab, then click on the Add button.

3. In the Create New Data Source dialog box, select the Microsoft Excel Driver, then click on the Finish button.

4. In the ODBC Microsoft Excel Setup dialog box, Enter "SEER-IT2-2_Lookup" (without the quotes) as the Data Source Name.

5. Select Excel 97 - 2000 (or the equivalent) from the Version pull-down menu.

6. Click on the Select Workbook button; in the Select Workbook dialog box, locate the file which you will be using as the catalog, then select it and click on OK.

7. Click on OK in the ODBC Microsoft Excel Setup and ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog boxes.

Now, when you click on the Search Catalog button in SEER-IT, the Search Database dialog box should show the contents of your custom catalog.

You can easily adapt these steps to create an ODBC connection to a catalog database in another format. Note that if a SEER-IT2-2_Lookup ODBC connection already exists on your system, and if you want to create a connection to a database file in another format (such as Microsoft Access, or SQL), the easiest way to do this will be to rename the existing SEER-IT2-2_Lookup connection, then create an entirely new ODBC connection to the correct data source, and name it "SEER-IT2-2_Lookup".

Calibrating SEER-IT Purpose The purpose of calibration in SEER-IT is to adjust your estimate for conditions within your organization which cause estimates to deviate in a known and predictable way from the basic SEER-IT estimation model. If, for example, construction time for Infrastructure Services tends to be about 15% longer than estimated by the SEER-IT mode, or Service desk training effort is about 20% less, calibration can capture the difference and allow you to adjust for it. Calibration can also be used to experimentally fit an estimate to hypothetical adjustment factors ("What if we decrease overall project schedule by 10%?") by trying them on for size. Its main purpose, however, is to adjust for conditions known to affect the outcome of projects based on actuals.


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How Calibration Works The basic steps in calibrating SEER-IT are:

Create an estimate from a completed IT project. Enter the actual effort, schedule, and cost figures for the completed project in a

special set of calibration inputs.

Generate a set of calibration adjustment factors based on the difference between the estimated and actual values.

Enter those adjustment factors in a set of Calibration Adjustment inputs in a new (or edited) knowledge base.

Apply the knowledge base to projects in order to calibrate them.

The following section describes how to carry out this process in detail.

How to Calibrate To calibrate SEER-IT, you need actual results from one or more completed IT projects within you organization. Ideally, these should include sufficient information to allow you to fill in a complete estimate for each project.

1. The first step is to create an estimate for a completed project, filling in the parameters with actual data from the project, and with Calibration Mode from the Estimate Menu turned on.

2. When you have created a complete estimate for the project, select the Calibration tab (which becomes visible in Calibration Mode), and enter actuals (actual effort, schedule, and cost figures from the completed project) in the Calibration Actuals section of the Calibration inputs. Note that each work element type has its own calibration actuals; the calibration process described here operates at the work element (rather than the project) level. This means that if you want to calibrate SEER-IT based on a project containing several work elements of different types, you will perform the calibration process described here separately for each work element which you want to use in calibration.

3. In Calibration Mode, the Calibration Summary report becomes visible. It shows the calibration adjustment factors, which SEER-IT calculates based on the estimated effort, schedule, and cost values and the actual values that you entered. The adjustment factors are multipliers representing the percentage difference between the estimate and actual values. After you have entered the Calibration Actuals, print the report; you will need it for the next part of the calibration process.

4. The next step in calibration is to create a new knowledge base for the for the work element type which you are currently calibrating. For full instructions on creating a


knowledge base, see Building and Maintaining SEER-IT Knowledge Bases. You can, of course, create a knowledge base for a purpose other than calibration, such as modeling specific types of projects or circumstances; when you do this, you will probably enter a variety of inputs, depending on the purpose of the knowledge base. To create a knowledge base for calibration, however, you specifically use the inputs on the Calibration tab (which is automatically visible in knowledge base creation mode). You can also use an existing knowledge base for calibration, as described in Building and Maintaining SEER-IT Knowledge Bases. When you do this, you will also use the inputs on the Calibration tab.

5. In the knowledge base which you are creating or editing, select the Calibration tab. Find the Calibration Adjustment inputs (listed under CALIBRATION FACTORS at the top of the Calibration tab window). Using the Calibration Summary report as a reference, find each Calibration Adjustment input for which there is an adjustment factor (other than zero) in the Calibration Summary report. Enter the adjustment factor from the report in the corresponding Calibration Adjustment input for the knowledge base. After you have entered all of the adjustment factors and make any other changes to the knowledge base that you want to make, save the knowledge base.

6. The knowledge base will now be available for use, just like any other knowledge base. To apply calibration to a project, select the knowledge base in the Create/Modify Work Element dialog box for the appropriate work element type. The calibration adjustments (along with any other settings from the knowledge base will now apply to that work element.

Note: Since knowledge bases apply on the individual work element level, you will need to apply calibration knowledge bases to each work element which you want to calibrate.

Scenarios SEER-IT allows you to store pre-defined project WBS structures that serve as estimation templates or scenarios for doing new estimates. Having a pre-defined WBS template makes the building of estimates much easier and faster.

Specific scenarios are generally developed for an organization by the SEER-IT administrator; there are, however, some scenarios packaged with the software to serve as examples. Information on building and managing WBS scenarios is addressed in the SEER-IT Administrator Reference.

Searching and Selecting a Scenario To use a scenario, you must first have a new or existing project open. Select File/Load From Scenario. You will be presented with a search box to help you find the right scenario. You may define specific search criteria, or simply click the Find Now button to browse all scenarios


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in the selected scenario folder. Once you have found the scenario that you want to load, select it and click Load.

Reviewing the Scenario Elements Once you have selected a scenario to load, you will be asked to review the scenario and be given the opportunity to fine tune which estimation elements get loaded into your estimate. The choices presented are called queries; there are two types of WBS element queries: Include. Elements with a check box to the left of the name have “include” queries. You are asked if you want to include the element in your estimate. A description of the element or a project is found in the description area. Choose. In some cases, you are given a set of choices in which you should include only one element from the set. These choices are used when there are exclusive options. For example, an application may be a standalone desktop application, or it may be client/server, but it wouldn’t be both. After you review the scenario queries and make choices, you may load the scenario into your estimate.

Parameter Queries Some scenarios may be set up to query the user for certain key parameter settings. After the scenario elements are selected and loaded, you will prompted with any specific parameter queries. Parameter queries open the parameter entry box, along with a special prompt which displays what element is selected, along with text which explains what is being asked of the user.

Creating Scenarios Scenarios allow you to build smart project estimation templates that can be used by your organization or estimation team to build consistent and well defined estimates. A well crafted scenario will build an estimate, or portion of an estimate, that is fine tuned to what you need to estimate. A strong library of scenarios will allow a wide base of SEER-IT users to effectively build project estimates in a consistent manner. Think of a scenario as a project estimate with some added information. In fact, to build a scenario, you basically start with a project template or WBS. The main difference is that a scenario may have more WBS elements than you would typically have in an estimate, to account for the fact that the user can down-select on the elements loaded. Scenarios can also be loaded with parameter queries that will prompt the user for key inputs when the scenario is loaded.


Start with a project

Building a scenario starts with building a project template that models a certain type of project or task using SEER-IT estimation elements. Elements can be pre-populated with knowledge base selections, parameter settings, and even element and parameter notes. The scenario project template can potentially contain more elements than you would typically have in an estimate. For example, you may include estimation elements for such things as hardware purchases or training. If not all projects require hardware purchases or training, you can give the user the option to include or exclude those items with WBS element queries. Because of this, scenarios projects can be configured to be a super-set containing all of the options that you might need to include in an estimate, giving the user the ability to down-select on what is needed for a specific project.

Setting Up WBS Element Queries

Once you have the project elements defined, you can establish WBS element queries. To do this, select the desired WBS element, right-click and choose Manage Element Scenario… There are two types of element queries that can be set up, Include and Choose. Include. If you want to give the user the option to include an element, select the Include. When the scenario is imported by a user, that element will be presented with a checkbox. Elements with include queries can be set to be checked (included) or unchecked (not included) by default. The user can then check or un-check specific elements. Choose. If you want to give the user a list of exclusive choices to choose from, use the Choose query. Choose queries are limited to rollup WBS elements. They are represented by radio buttons; the user will only be able to pick one sub-element from the branch when importing the scenario. The use of WBS element queries is optional, and not all elements need to have queries. If you want to remove a query from an existing WBS element, select No Action from the Manage Element Scenario… screen.

Setting Up Parameter Queries

Specific input parameters may be set up with parameter queries that will prompt the user for input values. Parameter queries are useful for prompting the user for project-specific values, such as the number of users or number of applications. While the use of parameter queries is optional, they can enhance the use of scenarios by highlighting key parameters that require inputs. Furthermore, the parameter query prompt can contain information specific to your organization such as recommended or typical values for that parameter.

To set up a parameter query, select the element and parameter which you want to trigger a query. Right-click on the parameter name and choose Manage Parameter Scenario Query….

If you decide that you don’t want a parameter to trigger a query, simply choose the No Action option.


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Saving a Scenario Once you have set up all WBS element and parameter queries, you can save your project as a scenario. Once saved, a scenario is really no different than a regular project. The main difference is that you would save scenarios in a folder designated for that purpose. If you want to save your entire project as a scenario, you can use the File/Save or File/Save As… command and point to the Scenarios folder. If you don’t want to save an entire project as a scenario, but rather a project branch, you can use the File/Save As Scenario… command. This menu item will save the selected element and all of its child elements as a scenario. The File/Save As Scenario… command is sensitive to the selected WBS element, so be sure you have the element that you want saved selected.

Project properties such as category and keywords can be used as a scenario search criteria. If you are building a large library of scenarios, having such a search criteria can be very helpful. You can set properties for any WBS element by selecting Edit/Properties…. and choosing the change button. Properties can include the WBS element’s selected knowledge bases as well as other attributes found on the properties tab.

Global Quantities and the Expression Editor As described earlier in this user's guide, Global Quantities are quantities which you will set at the project level, and which can be applied to subordinate work elements.

You can specify the work element types to which a Global Quantity applies, along with the individual inputs. For each work element type and input, you can also use the Expression Editor to specify an expression to be applied to the Global Quantity.

The Expression Editor allows you to create and edit mathematical/logical expressions for setting the default values of specific parameters. These expressions can incorporate both Global Quantities and standard SEER-IT parameters.

This section of the SEER-IT User's Guide covers both Global Quantities and the Expression Editor.

Definitions The following terms are important to know in relation to Global Quantities:

Global Quantity A Global Quantity is a special parameter with values that can be automatically applied to corresponding work element values throughout your estimate. You create Global Quantities at


the project level, then select the work element inputs to which they will apply. Global Quantities can represent existing work element inputs or custom values.

Custom Quantity A Custom Quantity is a Global Quantity (or a Local Quantity - see below) which you create, and which does not represent an existing parameter. you can set the relationship between a Custom Quantity and standard SEER inputs using mathematical/logical expressions.

Local Quantity Local Quantities are available in Additional Items work elements. They act like Global Quantities, but only within the scope of the specific Additional Items work element. As with Global Quantities, you can create Local Quantities that represent existing Additional Items inputs as well as custom Local Quantities, and you can set Local Quantity relationships using mathematical/logical expressions.

Expression Editor You can use the Expression Editor to create and edit the mathematical/logical expressions which set the relationships between Global or Local Quantities and standard SEER-IT inputs. The Expression Editor uses standard arithmetic and mathematics operators, along with the AND, OR, NOT, and IF-THEN-ELSE logical operators.

Quantity Input Relationship This is the arithmetic/logical relationship which determines the value of a standard SEER-IT input based on a Global or Local Quantity. It can be as simple as applying the quantity value directly to the input, or it can be based on arithmetic and logical operations of varying complexity, which can themselves be based on other input values.

Global Quantities FAQ Below are answers to some basic questions regarding Global Quantities:

What do Global Quantity inputs look like? Global Quantity inputs look just like standard SEER-IT inputs. You enter Global Quantity values in a standard SEER-IT three-value input dialog box, and they will appear under the Project-level GLOBAL QUANTITIES category heading.

How would you use them? The main function of Global Quantities is to provide a quick and efficient way to enter default (or calculated) values in inputs for multiple work elements.


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You might use Global Quantities if:

• You know that specific inputs in multiple work elements are likely to have the same value. For example, if the number of Storage Devices in each Infrastructure Services is likely to be 10, you could use a Global Quantity to automatically set that value.

• You know that specific inputs in multiple work elements are likely to have a value based on other input values. You could, for example, set the default quantity of Storage Devices to three times the number of Servers plus two.

• You know that one or more input values in multiple work elements are likely to be based on a factor which is not captured by a standard SEER-IT input. Connection to secure archival storage via dedicated lines, for example, could affect the number of servers, routers, and firewalls at multiple locations.

The example below shows how a variety of custom and standard Global Quantities can be applied to different work element types in an estimate.

What is the Expression Editor? How would you use it? If you want to set parameter values based on arithmetic or logical formulas (such as "three times the number of Servers"), you can use the Expression Editor to create and modify those formulas. You can bring the Expression Editor up by clicking on either the ... button in the Expression column of the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box, or the Expression Editor button in the parameter input dialog box.


The Expression Editor allows you to select and combine available operators, functions, parameters, and quantities, or to enter them manually. it displays the results of an expression in real time, as you are entering it.

What Do We Mean by Linking and Unlinking? You can link a Global Quantity to a parameter so that the parameter's value is determined by the Global Quantity. At the Project level, you should do this by putting a check mark in the box next to the parameter in the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box. When you do this, that parameter will be linked to the Global Quantity by default in any new work element of the appropriate type.

How Can I See a Summary of Global Quantities and Expressions Being Used? You can get a summary of all the Global Quantity linkages and expressions set up for your project by going to the Tools / Review Parameter Expressions menu. This will bring up your estimate breakdown structure and will show what parameters have expressions associated with them. You can resize the columns and the overall box to view long expressions. If an expression is set up but not being used, it will show the expression, but the In Use column will be set to No.


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Add/Edit Global Quantity Dialog Box The Add/Edit Global Quantities dialog box comes up when you add a new global quantity (by double-clicking on Add Next Global Quantity under the GLOBAL QUANTITIES category heading at the Project level) or when you edit a global quantity (by selecting a global quantity item, then right-clicking on it and selecting Modify Global Quantity Item from the right-click menu).

When you add a new global quantity, all of the dialog box's functions (as described below) will be available. When you modify an existing global quantity, you will only be able to change the parameters linked to the quantity.

Add/Edit Global Quantity Dialog Box

Item Description

Select a global quantity

Click on the list to see the available global quantities. You can also create up to 50 custom global quantities; to create a custom global quantity, select Custom from the bottom of the list.

Custom global quantity label

When you create a custom global quantity, you can give it a label. The label is for easy identification; it should describe the function of the custom quantity.

Select parameters that are linked to this global quantity

To select individual parameters for a work element type, click on the + sign to the left of the work element name; this will display a list of the parameters that are available for use with the global quantity.


Expression Editor: Background You probably don't need to use the Expression Editor. It serves a very specialized function: To set the value of a parameter according to a mathematical expression based on the values of global quantities or other parameters. If you're entering the parameter value in the usual manner, or if it was set by a Knowledge Base, you don't need the Expression Editor. You also don't need to use the Expression Editor if you simply want to use the current value of a global quantity (or of an already-existing expression) to set the value of the parameter. You only need to use the Expression Editor if you want to create or edit an expression. You don't need it just to use one.

Using the Expression Editor When would you use the Expression Editor? Typically, you'd use it if you want to set the value of a parameter or a global quantity so that it is automatically calculated based on the values of other global quantities or parameters. For example, in an Infrastructure Services work element, you might want to set the quantity of Switches based on the Locations (Global) quantity, so that there were five switches for each location. You could set that relationship in the Expression Editor using this expression: @Locations (Global)@ * 5

You could also base the quantity of Switches on other Infrastructure Services parameters, like this: _Routers_ * _Access Points_

Now the quantity of Switches will be based on the quantity of Routers times the quantity of Access Points.

Applying Expressions The Expression Editor button is only available for parameters which can be set by global quantities or expressions. To bring up the Expression Editor, click on the Expression Editor button in the parameter entry dialog box, just to the left of the Use Global Quantities checkbox. When you create an expression for a parameter in a work element, it applies only to that instance of that parameter in that work element; the value of the same parameter in another work element (or in another expanding-list item in the same work element) could be set by a different expression, or it could have no expression associated with it.

When you create an expression for a global quantity, that expression applies to the quantity wherever it is used. For example, suppose that you create a custom global quantity named Quantum Repeaters, and set it to two times the value of Substations, another custom global quantity: @Substations@ * 2


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Now, whenever the value of a parameter is based on the Quantum Repeaters global quantity, the value of Quantum Repeaters will in turn be set by that expression. The Additional Items work element has its own set of Local Quantities, which behave like global quantities, but only within that specific Additional Items work element. The rules for using expressions to set the value of a global quantity apply to local quantities as well, but only within the scope of the Additional Items work element.

Reviewing and Deleting Expressions You can view all of the expressions in a project by selecting Review Parameter Expressions from the Tools menu. This will bring up the Review Parameter Expressions dialog box, which lists all of the project's work elements, along with the parameters which have expressions. you can select individual parameters and delete them.

Expression Editor Dialog Box The Expression Editor allows you to automatically set the value of a parameter or global quantity based on a mathematical expression involving one or more global quantities or parameters. The expression can consist of simple arithmetic ("multiply the number of routers by five"), or it can be more complex.


Expression Editor Dialog Box

Operators, Punctuation, and Functions When you click on one of the buttons in this section, the corresponding operator, expression punctuation or function will appear in the Expression field.

Item Description

+ Standard addition operator; adds the right side to the left side.

- Standard subtraction operator; subtracts the right side from the left.

x Standard multiplication operator; multiplies the right side by the left.

÷ Standard division operator; divides the left side by the right side.


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^ Exponent. Clicking on this button adds a caret in parentheses: (^). If you enter quantities on both sides of the caret, the quantity on the left side will be raised to the power of the quantity on the right side: (3^2) raises 3 to the power of 2.

?: If-Then-Else. When you click on the button, the following string of characters appears in the expression: () ? () : () This forms the skeleton of an If-Then-Else statement, like this: (If) ? (Then) : (Else) If the proposition in the first set of parentheses is true, the result will be the contents of the second set of parentheses; otherwise, the result will be the contents of the third parentheses. The if proposition can contain global quantities, parameters, and numbers, along with the following logical operators: == Equals != Does not equal > Greater than < Less than >= Greater than or equal to <= Less than or equal to && And || Or For example, suppose that you use the following expression for the Switches parameter in an Infrastructure Services work element: (@Quantum Repeaters@<2) ? (3) : (@Quantum Repeaters@*4) It says that if the custom global quantity Quantum Repeaters is less than 2, Switches will be set to 3; otherwise, the quantity of Switches is Quantum Repeaters times 4. Now consider this more complex example: (@Quantum Repeaters@<2 && _Routers_<=1) ? (3) : ((@Quantum Repeaters@*4) + _Routers_)

It says that if Quantum Repeaters is less than 2, AND if the quantity in the Routers parameter is 1 or less, Switches is set to 3; otherwise (i.e., if there are more Quantum Repeaters AND more Routers than the quantities indicated), otherwise, Switches is set to Quantum Repeaters times 4 plus the number of Routers.

() Parentheses. Enter an expression in the parentheses just as you would in any mathematical expression.


exp The exponential function. When you click on the button, exp () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be e raised to the power of that number.

√x The square root function. When you click on the button, sqrt () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the square root of that number.

log The log function. When you click on the button, log () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the log of that number.

ln The natural log function. When you click on the button, ln () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the natural log of that number.

sin The sine function. When you click on the button, sin () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the sine of that number.

cos The cosine function. When you click on the button, cos () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the cosine of that number.

tan The tangent function. When you click on the button, tan () appears in the expression. When you enter a number in the parentheses, the result will be the tangent of that number.

The Expression Field The expression field contains the expression. You can construct the expression by selecting the appropriate operators, punctuation, functions, quantities, and parameters, or by typing them in. Some characters, such as numbers, must be entered from the keyboard, or else pasted in.

Results The results of the expression appear in the Least, Likely, and Most Results fields.

Note: The Expression Editor evaluates expressions immediately, so you may see a series of error messages in the results fields as you are entering the expression. You can ignore any error messages until you have completed the expression. If you still see an error message on completion, you will need to revise the expression.

Global Quantities The Global Quantities box lists the global quantities which are available to add to expressions. To add a global quantity, double-click on it. The quantity's name will appear in the expression field with an @ symbol on either side of it, like this: @Quantum Repeaters@


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Work Element Parameters The Work Element Parameters box lists the parameters from the current work element which are available to add to expressions. To add a parameter, double-click on it. The parameter's name will appear in the expression field with an underscore on either side of it, like this: _Routers_

Click OK to exit the Expression Editor and save the changes that you have made. Click Cancel to exit without saving any changes.

Basic Global Quantities Tutorial In this tutorial, we will step through the basic process of creating a Global Quantity.

To create a Global Quantity:

1. Select the Project-level work element (for either a new or existing SEER-IT project). 2. Double-click on (Add Next Global Quantity). 3. In the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box, select In-house Hourly Labor Rate from the

Select a global quantity pull-down menu.

4. Note that In-house Hourly Labor Rate (Global) is already linked to inputs in several

work elements, as indicated by the filled-in checkboxes next to the work element names.


5. Click on the + sign next to one of the work elements with a filled-in checkbox -- for

example, Software/Database Services. This will display the list of inputs available for that work element.

6. Scroll down to In-house Hourly Labor Rate. You will see that its checkbox is marked with a check. this means that the In-house Hourly Labor Rate is linked to the In-house Hourly Labor Rate Global Quantity by default.


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7. Click on OK to exit the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box. 8. Now double-click on the In-house Hourly Labor Rate Global Quantity that you created

in the previous step; this will bring up a standard parameter input dialog box.

9. Enter values in the Least, Likely, and Most fields: 200, 250, and 300.

10. Click on OK to exit the parameter entry dialog box. 11. Now create a new Software/Database Services work element.

12. Select the new work element and click on the Economic Factors tab.


The In-house Hourly Labor Rate inputs will now all have the Least, Likely, Most values of 200, 250, and 300.

Global Quantities / Expression Editor Custom Input Tutorial In this tutorial, we will create a Custom Quantity, set its relationship to a SEER-IT input, define the associated expression, and look at how linking and unlinking the quantity and input affects the input values.

1. In the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box, select Custom (Global) from the Select a global quantity pull-down menu.

2. In the Custom Global quantity label field, enter the word Department.

3. Click on OK to exit the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box.

This is necessary because you must save the newly-created Custom Global Quantity before you can edit it or apply it to a SEER-IT input.

4. Right-click on the Custom Global Quantity in the Project-level work element's Global Quantities list and select Modify Global Quantity item from the right-click context menu.


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This will bring up the Add/Edit Global Quantity dialog box once again.

5. In the Select parameters... list, click on the + sign to the right of Infrastructure Services so that you can see its list of inputs.

6. Click on the checkbox next to Servers so that it is checked.

7. Click on the Expression column to the right of Servers so that the ... button becomes visible.

8. Click on the ... button to bring up the Expression Editor.


9. In the Expression Editor, you will see the new Global Quantity in the expression field. 10. Click on the X button to add the multiplication symbol (*) to the expression.

11. Type in the number 50. The expression should look like this: @Departments@ * 50

12. Click on OK to exit the Expression Editor, then click OK again to exit the Add/Edit

Global Quantity dialog box.


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13. Double-click on the Departments Global Quantity. 14. Enter the following in the Least, Likely, and Most fields: 4.

15. Now create a new Infrastructure Services work element.

16. Select the new work element and look at the Servers parameter Least, Likely, Most values. They should all be 200 -- the number of Departments (4) times 50.

17. Double-click on the Servers parameter to bring up the parameter input dialog box. By

default, Use Global Quantities will be checked, with the message "This parameter is linked with 'Departments'." shown beneath the checkbox. The Least, Likely, Most inputs will be grayed-out and unavailable for entry.


18. Click on the Use Global Quantities checkbox so that it is not checked. The least, Likely,

most inputs will become available for entry.

19. Enter new values in the input field.

20. Click on the Use Global Quantities checkbox so that it is checked again. The new

values will be replaced by the calculated value (200), and the input fields will be grayed-out and unavailable again.

This allows you to apply Global Quantities throughout the estimate, then override them for parameters in specific work elements as necessary.


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Expression Editor Custom Calculation Tutorial In this tutorial, we will use the Expression Editor and Additional Items to create a custom model calculation. Our goal will be to replace SEER-IT's standard calculated value for Analysis Hours in the Infrastructure Services work element with a value based on the following calculation: Analysis Hours = 100 * Servers + 20 * Switches

Note that this custom calculation in this example will apply to Analysis Hours for a specific work element only -- in this case, an Infrastructure Services work element. You can use the same technique to create custom calculations for other work elements of different types on individual basis.

1. The first step will be to turn off the standard SEER-IT estimate for the Analyst activity in the Infrastructure Services work element.

To turn the Analyst estimate off, select the Schedule tab for the work element and double-click on Analysis to bring up the Analysis Input dialog box. Click on the No radio button and exit the input dialog box.

Analysis should now be shown in the Schedule list with No to the right of its name. In the Phased Activity report, the hours for the Analysis activity will now be listed as zero.


2. Next, you will add an Additional Item to the Infrastructure Services work element. To do this, go to the ADDITIONAL ITEMS section of the Infrastructure Services work element's parameter list and double-click on Add Next Item Here.

Note: You need to do this, rather than adding a separate Additional Items work element, because the Additional Item should be part of the Infrastructure work element.

3. Give the additional item a descriptive name that reflects its function, select Analysis as the Activity type and Analyst as the Labor Category, leave everything else at its default setting, and click on OK to exit.


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4. In the parameter list, click on the plus sign next to the name of your new Additional Item to expand its list of parameters.

5. Double-click on Labor Hours to bring up its parameter input dialog box.

6. Click on the Use Global Quantities checkbox. 7. Click on the button to the left of the checkbox to bring up the Expression Editor.

8. In the Expression Editor, enter the following expression:

_Servers_ * 100 + _Switches_ * 20


To enter the parameter names, you can either select them from the Work Element Parameters list or enter them from the keyboard. if you do the latter, be sure to include the underscore characters at the beginning and end of each parameter name.

9. When you have entered the expression, click on OK to exit the Expression Editor.

10. Now compare the Analysis hours in the Phased Activity report when the custom calculation is turned on and the standard SEER-IT calculation is turned off with the Analysis hours when the custom calculation is turned off and the standard calculation is turned on.

Standard SEER-IT Analysis Hours calculation turned off, custom calculation turned on.


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Standard SEER-IT Analysis Hours calculation turned on, custom calculation turned off (and Additional items Labor Hours set to zero).

Note that if both calculations are turned on, or if the standard calculation is on, and you have not reset the Additional items Labor hours input to zero, the Analysis hours in the estimate will be the custom result plus the standard result.


This page can be used for notes and comments.

SEER for IT · 2019-05-09 · SEER for IT User's Guide . ge 5 Pa. Introduction . Welcome to the...

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