Hello A.J.,
One quarter down, 3 to go. I hope your New Year has started with a bang
and just getting better and better. If it hasn't, why not? Soon you should
be partying like it's 1999. Remember those days just before the big bust?
Have you revised your strategy? Implemented new processes? Have you
evaluated where you've been? Do you know where you're going?
When your business strategy works, your world opens to more customers,
businesses, suppliers and employees than you might have imagined. Our
extensive industry and business expertise can help you leverage your
company's unique value into a go-to- market strategy that's right for you.
We help our clients identify competitive business opportunities in
their key markets and formulate specific strategies and action plans. From
project development and launch programs to adapting current strategies for
the digital future, we can help you get to where you want to go.
-aj-
When you are creating or reviewing a project plan, make sure you can
answer these 10 questions:
Question 1: How will you know when you are done?
One big cause of bad project plans is the lack of a common
understanding of the finish line. Without knowing when you are done, it is
impossible to develop a good project baseline.
Question 2: What activities or deliverables are
not included?
Most project plans exclude activities that
the planner understands to be outside of the scope of this project. It is
important to develop as comprehensive an understanding as possible of
those activities that must be ultimately performed but are not part of the
plan being reviewed. In some cases, the cost associated with these
off-plan activities can meet or exceed the cost of the planned activities.
Question 3: What assumptions are you making
about the team?
The largest cost driver for most projects is
the make- up of the team. There are differences of up to 500% in
productivity from one team or team member to the next, driven by the
experience and skill of the team. It is vital that you understand the
assumptions made by the planner regarding the capabilities of the team
that will do the work. If these assumptions are invalid, the planned
effort could be significantly understated or overstated.
Question 4: What assumptions are you making
about the actions of others?
A successful project depends on
the cooperative support of many people outside of the project team. Be
sure that you have a good understanding of these assumptions and that you
are comfortable with the fact that the implied commitments by others will
be forthcoming.
Question 5: How did you derive the total
effort?
Just as the bottom line of an income statement is
the net income, the bottom line for a project cost is the total effort.
Where did that number come from? Why is it right? If the best the manager
can do is provide some vague descriptions of people making what amounts to
educated guesses, send him back to the drawing board. What you want to
hear is evidence that the manager used a methodical, step-by-step approach
to quantifying expected volume (tasks, feature points, or whatever) and
calculated effort.
Question 6: How did you derive the total
schedule?
Where did the total project schedule come from? A
wealth of information is available allowing the manager to convert an
effort estimate into the optimal schedule. Once again, all of the
commercial estimating tools will calculate and display the optimal
schedule for a project. How far is the proposed project schedule from the
optimal?
Question 7: How did you determine the correct
allocation of effort and time between tasks?
Each task has
a different amount of effort allocated to it. Ask the project planner how
she knows that these allocations are correct? Valid answers may include
sitting down with the implementers and using their best judgment, or using
standard allocations built into a cost-estimating tool.
Question 8: What would be the cost impact of
accelerating the schedule by 25%?
Accelerating a schedule
beyond 25% without reducing functionality is not feasible. Accelerating a
schedule up to 25% from the optimal is feasible, although total costs go
up due to inefficiencies and rework. You want to quantify how much those
costs go up. Typically, the initial feeling is that this expenditure is
justified, but a more thoughtful analysis indicates that it is not.
Question 9: What are the risk factors that would
cause the schedule to slip or the costs to overrun?
Successful projects are not successful because they did not
run into problems, but because they anticipated the problems and overcame
them. What risk factors are faced by this project? What trigger events
will be used to tell if the risk has become a problem? What mitigation
actions are we going to take now to reduce the risk?
Question 10: What metrics will we use to
quantify and track progress?
Finally, you should insist that
a quantitative, unambiguous metric or set of metrics be identified that
will be used to track progress toward completion. Staff hours and/or
dollars are the cost against which progress is measured. By plotting
percent complete (in terms of the selected metric) versus effort expended
you can tell if the project is on track or falling behind schedule. Even
if you will not be doing this tracking yourself, you want to ensure that
the project planner has thought this through and is prepared to do the
required tracking.
PM --
A Short Course
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Book Report |
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 A Message From
Garcia
by Charles Garcia
I'm a pretty big fan of motivational books, because they seem to
be exactly what I need at any particular moment. I actually found
out about A Message From Garcia through an email spam. It was touted
as "different." I'm not sure how different since many books of this
genre are usually speaking the same message, just with different
examples and perspectives. But, it was easy to read and kept me
turning the page. I really liked the "how to" aspect of the book.
After all, it isn't any good reading about other people's success if
you don't know how to make your own.
A big "different" -- The book was augmented with a website called
Success Compass
which helps you set goals and then e-mails you a reminder at
whatever frequency you wish, even several times a day. I guess the
key to success is not allowing yourself to forget what you want, and
the Success Compass website doesn't let you forget. I liked it and I
think you'll like it too.
Get
it at Amazon »
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Famous Last Words. . . . |
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 "We don't like their sound, and
guitar music is on the way out." --Decca Recording Co. rejecting the
Beatles, 1962.
"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
--Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." --Charles H.
Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." --Bill Gates, 1981
(unless you're using MS Office:-)
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The Happy Blogger |
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 Thanks to everyone participating
in and reading Proj ect, Process
& Business Improvement. It's fun putting up my almost daily
insights and reading your comments.
This newsletter is based on the information accumulated in the
blog. Now I'm wondering if this is a duplicate effort. While
subscriptions are still increasing for The Value Manager, readership
at the blog is triple that of the newsletter.
I'd like to hear your comments and thoughts. Which medium do you
prefer: periodic updates via newsletter or daily updates via a blog.
While you're passing along information how about answering my 9-
question blog reader survey. It's actually an experiment in web
surveying, but why not gather some important info while I'm at it.
Thanks and let me know what you think. And one more thing --
Think Spring!
-aj-
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