Here you go

“Here you go – these are the build estimates for the user stories. Can you come up with a pricing for the SOW by tomorrow please.”

The poor project manager came to me in distress.

She had just joined the Consulting Partner recently, and while she was a skilled PM in IT projects, she had never really worked on a software implementation one.

The bid manager was incredibly unfair, and had not given her context around the project at all, and without the team – she would not be able to provide project estimation for a Statement of Work that is of much use.

To produce a resourcing plan that works, I need to know a few things:
– is there an imperative deadline (do we have to stack up resources to accelerate build or can we make do with a smaller team for longer)
– technical task dependencies (again, how do the resource profile look like)
– testing requirement, including environment availability (how do we make sure we conduct robust testing to ensure quality)
– what’s the the deployment and release strategy, how many orgs are we propogating through for UAT and production cut-over?

Armed with the above information, I can draft the resourcing and project plan, which I will finesse with the help of my team.

This is not something you can ask a PM to do by herself, just with build estimates.

The bid manager was suitably contrite when I had a word with her, citing time pressure. 😑
Not a great excuse.

Properly estimating a project is an art, and not something you can rush.

Just like fall-off-the-bone spare ribs. 🍖
Delivering a masterpiece takes thoughtful planning and execution.
This post isn’t about food.
Really. 😋

#projectmanagement
#onthepeiroll
#theartofestimation

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