ProjectConnections

Featured Template: Estimating Process and Methods

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:39:00 -0700

Not sure how trustworthy those estimates are? You'll have a better idea if you're sure of the methods used to create them. This guideline discusses some of the nitty-gritty details of the estimating processes, and outlines some of the more common methods used to throw a stake into the sand. In addition to acting as a double check for your own methods, it could make a good training tool for new PMs (or engineers) who would like to provide estimates based on something better than gut instinct. This Premium template is free to registered Members until July 10!

Featured Template: Team Meeting Agenda

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:58 -0700

Sometimes there's no avoiding it-you just have to get everyone into a room to hash things out. That doesn't mean that it has to be a hash. Meetings can go well, quickly, and smoothly if we take the time to plan them a little more thoroughly. The key is to go in knowing what we want to get out of it-options, decisions, or commitments. Our sample agenda will help you keep the meeting on track and the conversations on target, so you can make the decisions that much less stressful. This Premium template is free to registered Members until July 10!

Featured Article: Running the Numbers by Kent McDonald

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:57 -0700

Knowing your options can be helpful, but not very enlightening if you can't easily see the result of those options on the overall project. I built my financial model in a spreadsheet so I can easily change key input data (additional food and beverage items, detailed audio/visual line items, number of sponsorships, and number of registrants, for example) and quickly see the resulting revenue or loss from the event. Building a similar financial model for your project allows you to revise costs and expected revenues to quickly get an up-to-date picture of how successful (or not) your project will be in terms of value delivery.

Best 3 out of 5? - Pete's Estimating Laws

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:56 -0700

You followed all the so-called rules, and the project estimates still didn't match up to reality. Well, they don't call them "estimates" for nothing. Pete's Estimating Laws remind us-using a good dose of humor and a sizeable reality check-that just because completely accurate estimates are the stuff of dreams doesn't mean we should stop trying to improve them. This loosely bound set of 18 "Universal Laws" (more or less) provides amusing insight into possible influences on our estimates, and common errors we encounter when making them. Incorporating these laws into your schedule estimates makes you at least 80% more likely to tolerate the inevitable variations between those estimates and reality-roughly speaking, of course.

We Are the Deciders - Agenda for Preliminary Design Review Meeting

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:55 -0700

Deciding what you want and getting what you expect don't necessarily go hand in hand. By the time you get from initial vision to an initial design (let alone from design to reality), your design concepts can vary vastly from the original intent. Preliminary Design Reviews remind us to keep testing our design concepts against the Project Vision, to uncover their implications very early on. This agenda shows how to structure a PDR meeting to thoroughly test the project's design choices, and to make sure any variance is acceptable, purposeful, and consciously decided.

NEW - We'll Just Call It Retro - Calculating Expected Monetary Value of Risks

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:53 -0700

Manufacturing says the paint colors are "just a little off." How much does it really matter? How much time and money should the team devote to avoiding it? This template from Carl Pritchard of Pritchard Management Associates helps teams think through and communicate the true potential impact of their projects' risks, making it easier to determine appropriate budgetary values and set-asides for risk management. Best of all, the guideline shows you how to base it on quantifiable numbers based on the real potential impact, not drama and hyperbole. After all, is it really that terrible if everything comes out of production colored lime green and neon orange? (On second thought...)

Maybe We Could Go With a Nice, Neutral Puce? - Project Alternative Tradeoffs Table

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:51 -0700

Well, if we can't do lime green and orange, what are the alternatives? Brainstorming options is one thing, but understanding the implications of those options means thinking them through as thoroughly as possible. This table format that gives your team a concise way to document, analyze, and communicate the alternatives you are considering for scope and features, as well as issue/risk management. Capture the critical factors associated with each design alternative under consideration, and compare the impact of various combinations on the project's cost, schedule, resources, and risk, so you can make an informed choice based on more than gut instinct and a lingering fear of the 70s.

Project Status Reports - Multi-User License

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:38:48 -0700

Another day, another project, another status report. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some consistency from team to team, and from project to project? A multi-user license for our Status Reports bundle can provide a quick, easy, and useful path to the consistency everyone's looking for, not to mention saving time spent re-inventing the wheel. You'll find over 20 variations on status report formats for different situations, many with sample data so you can see the level of detail other teams and managers use. These real-world examples will make your status manageable, understandable, and presentable throughout the organization, for a fraction of the time and cost you would spend developing them all from scratch.