Re: [gentoo-soc] Before Applying, Questions About Time

[Arun Raghavan]

Hi Jake,
I don't have the answers to all your questions, but I do have
something to say about timelines:

On 4 April 2010 05:51, Jacob Godserv <jacobgodserv@×××××.com> wrote:
[...]
> *) Who are these projects designed for? Are they designed for Gentoo?
> Or are they designed for a specific skill level? In other words, are
> they just a list of things that need to get done, and a student can
> pick the one that seems to fit them best Or are they all meant to be
> handled by a particular crowd, who can pick whatever?

These are things that need to be done, and students pick what is most
interesting to them and that they think they can succeed in completing
in the given time frame.

> *) I always get very nervous whenever there are deadlines, because I
> know, in the field of programming at least, deadlines are
> extraordinarily hard to meet. What factors do you think determine
> success in a project? What made or broke previous students' plans?

Actually, deadlines are not exceptionally hard to meet. If you code
for a living, you will be expected to provide time-frames for your
tasks/projects and as you gain experience, your estimates will become
more accurate. This is why students should spend some time planning
the timeline for their proposal. If you're having trouble with it,
speak to the mentors, and we'll help you come up with estimates.

Of course, there may be stumbling blocks that we don't foresee, and
the evaluation process is not so rigid as to not account for that, so
if when you start working, you're way off on the schedule you set for
yourself because some task(s) involved more work, that's okay. Just
talk to your mentor about it.

Regards,
-- 
Arun Raghavan
http://arunraghavan.net/
(Ford_Prefect | Gentoo) & (arunsr | GNOME)