As stated so eloquently by Bob Lewis in his book "IS Survival Guide", There is no way for you to successfully estimate projects. Take that as a given. It can't be done, and for a very simple reason: Every one of your projects is one-of-a-kind. Mr. Lewis makes a very good point, however in my experience, I have yet to have met a manager that will let me get away with saying "I can't estimate this project".
SO WHAT IS A PROJECT MANAGER TO DO?
I like to call the solution to this problem rolling-wave estimating. By that I mean when the project is in the initiation phase and you have very little information your estimate should reflect that fact. This means very early in the project your estimate(s) could be off by as much as +200/-75% (or more). As you progress through the project planning phase you will breakdown the project into smaller, more manageable pieces of work (decomposition). This process helps to narrow the range of your estimates.
Do not be fooled into thinking that because you have broken down your project into phases and/or small manageable pieces of work that you can just add up the estimates and have a total overall project estimate. Many times, especially on IT projects, there are integration issues that are difficult to estimate and are usually ignored in the planning phase. Do not forget to add time for these critical integration activities. Also, while padding of estimates is a no-no, don't forget to account for Risk in your project estimates. PMI advocates for contingency and management reserves to account for risk events, but I have not worked in an environment where these exist so I have to plan for Risk in my estimates.
Be smart when estimating and realize that in the IT world estimates are always wrong and tasks are always underestimated.
Monday, July 12, 2004
Managing a Project in Steps
Everyone should know that for an initiative to be considered a project it must have an actual start and end date. Additionally, the project must needs a scope statement, budget, and resources.
The work in a project is considered to be unique. There may be similarities to previous projects, but no two projects are exactly the same because you will always be dealing with different circumstances and resources.
There are many different ways to manage projects and organize the work. We want to manage projects in an organized fashion using a methodology that has either been tested by others, or created for our own environment.
Step I use to manage a project are:
1. Define the Work (Concept Documents, Business Case, Charter)
2. Create the Plan (WBS, MS Work, Project, Excel)
3. Manage to the Plan (Earned Value)
4. Manage Issues
5. Manage the Scope (from the Scope Statement)
6. Manage Communications (Status Reports, Meetings)
7. Manage Risks (Risk Management Plan)
8. Manage Documentation (Document Management, Intranet/Internet)
9. Manage Quality (Quality Plan)
10. Manage Metrics (Status Reports, Earned Value)
It is important to remember as the complexity of your projects increases you will need to delve deeper and deeper into the Ten steps listed above. An excellent resource that explains how to use the above process steps is http://www.tenstep.com.
The work in a project is considered to be unique. There may be similarities to previous projects, but no two projects are exactly the same because you will always be dealing with different circumstances and resources.
There are many different ways to manage projects and organize the work. We want to manage projects in an organized fashion using a methodology that has either been tested by others, or created for our own environment.
Step I use to manage a project are:
1. Define the Work (Concept Documents, Business Case, Charter)
2. Create the Plan (WBS, MS Work, Project, Excel)
3. Manage to the Plan (Earned Value)
4. Manage Issues
5. Manage the Scope (from the Scope Statement)
6. Manage Communications (Status Reports, Meetings)
7. Manage Risks (Risk Management Plan)
8. Manage Documentation (Document Management, Intranet/Internet)
9. Manage Quality (Quality Plan)
10. Manage Metrics (Status Reports, Earned Value)
It is important to remember as the complexity of your projects increases you will need to delve deeper and deeper into the Ten steps listed above. An excellent resource that explains how to use the above process steps is http://www.tenstep.com.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Commitment
While getting ready to leave for the day I was reminded of a quote by Tom Peters, "Commitment, not authority produces results". All project stakeholders need to be committed to seeing that a project's objectives are met, but more importantly they need to be open, effective, and honest when it comes to their communications with the other team members and management.
To support the project team and ensure their success, management must provide the best people to participate on project teams, and have a deep seated belief that the people on the team are intelligent, creative, and have the capability to succeed.
The entire project team and all levels of management involved must have the attitude that they will do everything possible to ensure that the customer (end user) is satisfied with the product of the project.
The number one measure of Project Success is Customer Satisfaction. Having a set of "shared values" will help a project team increase customer satisfaction for every project they support.
To support the project team and ensure their success, management must provide the best people to participate on project teams, and have a deep seated belief that the people on the team are intelligent, creative, and have the capability to succeed.
The entire project team and all levels of management involved must have the attitude that they will do everything possible to ensure that the customer (end user) is satisfied with the product of the project.
The number one measure of Project Success is Customer Satisfaction. Having a set of "shared values" will help a project team increase customer satisfaction for every project they support.