I'm continually amazed at how many project managers, even in large, important projects, do not know the true status of their project until near the end, when there is little that can be done to ensure they finish on time or budget. The proper time to rigorously track project status is at the beginning, not at the end. This is when project risk can be managed and … [Read more...]
Let’s face it: managing a project can sometimes feel like a frantic dash to put out fires. A missed deadline here, a budget overrun there—too often, project managers end up reacting to chaos instead of steering the ship. But here's the truth: Putting out fires is rarely a good project management strategy. It’s exhausting, inefficient, and leaves little room for real … [Read more...]
Because a project is defined as a temporary endeavor (PMBOK 1.1), deadlines are baked into the success criteria of all projects. Since all projects have a defined end point, the circumstances around this end point can result in project success or failure. Managing the project schedule can be one of the most formidable parts of project management. I've seen more … [Read more...]
Bottom up estimating is the project management technique of estimating individual tasks and then combining them into an overall project estimate. Often the individual project team members who will be performing the task provide the estimates, because they are in a better position to estimate a task that they will be working on. Types of Estimates Any of the three main … [Read more...]
A project manager that fails to allocate project resources is like a carpenter without a hammer. That's why estimating task resources is an integral step in project planning. It also happens to be one of the most fundamental aspects of project management, one of the steps that the project manager utilizes on a day to day basis. Types of Resources Each task on … [Read more...]
In yesterday's post we outlined the critical path method which is one of the professional project manager's techniques to ensuring project deadlines are met. Today we will walk through an example with a complete solution using MS Excel. Our example project is to build a new driveway. We will be hiring our friend, Jon, who is a concrete worker, and we will … [Read more...]
Earned Value is a method used by project managers to calculate the current project status and predict future project performance. In this post we will outline each earned value formula. Planned Value (PV) Earned Value (EV) Actual Cost (AC) Schedule Variance (SV) Schedule Performance Index (SPI) Cost Variance (CV) Cost Performance Index (CPI) … [Read more...]
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is an important step in project scheduling. PERT charts are a central part of any project management course. They are quick to draw and intuitive to use. How to Draw a PERT Chart There are two rules: Tasks (activities) are represented as arrows Milestone dates are nodes PERT charts are also called … [Read more...]
The real benefit of the earned value method is in the early warning signal it provides. In my previous life at a large engineering company, I saw many project managers get to a monthly billing cycle before they realized the project was behind, and even then they would rationalize it by deciding their project team was going to be more efficient in the next cycle. … [Read more...]
In its most basic form a project schedule is a list of tasks with assigned start and finish dates. It can also be a graphical bar chart produced with project management software or in a spreadsheet. In professional schedule development, a critical path analysis using a network diagram produces the critical path tasks and their floats. Since a graphical bar … [Read more...]
