Eight jobs, eight hours
You have 8 hours for the whole practice project. You have 8 jobs.
If you spend 4 hours on the first job, what happens to the rest? Many students run out of time and never finish the build.
A plan stops this. It takes 30 minutes and saves hours.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | A careful guess of how long or how much. | Build: 120 minutes |
| Milestone | A point that shows a big step is done. | Design finished |
| Deadline | The time when the work must be finished. | 4 o'clock |
| Gantt chart | A table or picture that shows jobs against time. | rows of jobs, columns of hours |
| Risk | Something that could go wrong. | The build takes longer |
| Mitigation | What you do to make a risk smaller. | Build the must-haves first |
| Resource | Something you need for the job. | time, a computer, a tool |
| Running total | All the numbers added up so far. | 30, then 30 + 30 = 60 |
| Must-have | A part the tool needs. It must be in the tool. | book a room |
| Could-have | A nice extra part. It is only added if there is time. | a colour theme |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Worked example: add up the minutes
| Job | Minutes | Running total |
|---|---|---|
| Read the brief | 30 | 30 |
| Make the plan | 30 | 30 + 30 = 60 |
| Find and fix defects | 60 | 60 + 60 = 120 |
| Design | 60 | 120 + 60 = 180 |
| Build | 120 | 180 + 120 = 300 |
| Test | 60 | 300 + 60 = 360 |
| Evaluate | 45 | 360 + 45 = 405 |
| Check and hand in | 15 | 405 + 15 = 420 |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Quick check: the arithmetic
Have a go
Quick check: the arithmetic
4 questionsHave a go: your answers are marked here and then forgotten. Sign in if you would like your score kept, and to pick up where you left off.Sign in to keep your score
Your answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Try it: minutes to hours
total = 420
hours = total // 60
minutes = total % 60
print(hours, "hours and", minutes, "minutes")
# // gives the whole hours.
# % gives the minutes left over.
# Change 420 to 435 and run it again.
Gantt chart: each X is 1 hour
| Job | Hour 1 | Hour 2 | Hour 3 | Hour 4 | Hour 5 | Hour 6 | Hour 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read the brief and plan (60 min) | X | ||||||
| Find and fix defects (60 min) | X | ||||||
| Design (60 min) | X | ||||||
| Build (120 min) | X | X | |||||
| Test (60 min) | X | ||||||
| Evaluate and hand in (60 min) | X |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Always leave spare time
data-callouts.tip.label
Most jobs take more time than you think. Keep some spare minutes at the end. A plan with no spare time is a plan that fails at the first problem.