"PRIDE"-Project Management (PM) - M. Bryce & Associates

PRIDE

-PM

Project Management
PROJECT REPORTING

PLANNING ESTIMATING SCHEDULING CONTROL
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CONTENTS

"Without an effective way to record and verify the use of time, all other project management activities are useless."
- Bryce's Law

This section contains the following:

INTRODUCTION

"ESTIMATE TO DO"

TIME DISTRIBUTION WORKSHEET

INTRODUCTION

Reporting is the "Achilles' heel" of project management. If time is not reported accurately, the resulting information is of little value. Any report produced from inaccurately reported time will have little value or use.

To gain the maximum precision in reporting, time for the individual employee should be recorded on a daily basis. The time should then be posted to the various projects on a weekly basis to assure effective control.

Everyone reporting time should make a personal assessment of the remaining work to be completed. This is expressed as the amount of time "estimated to do" the work, which is different than the original estimate. Whereas the latter is used for estimating purposes, the former is used for reporting purposes and promotes the "Mini-Project Manager" concept.

"ESTIMATE TO DO"

To illustrate how "estimated to do" works, suppose an employee is scheduled to work 20 hours on an assignment during a single week. During the week, the worker reports a total of 5 hours of work performed against the assignment. The employee then considers the amount of remaining work on the assignment. The "estimated to do" will not necessarily be 15 hours (20 minus 5), although it is a possibility. After considering the amount of remaining work, the employee posts 30 hours "estimated to do." The 5 hours reported and the 30 hours "estimated to do" represents a total of 35 hours to perform the assignment, which is noticeably different than the original 20 hour estimate. Project management can easily spot this discrepancy and calculate its effect on the remainder of the project, showing a chain reaction of overruns or underruns on estimates and schedules.

ESTIMATE TO DO

Estimating the work remaining encourages each project participant to evaluate where they are and where they are going. This is the real value of project management. By estimating the remaining time for an assignment, project management can accurately pinpoint the effect of delays or accelerations to the project schedule and modify plans accordingly.

Since the project methodology is engineered to produce a reviewable result, whenever an employee indicates there is zero "estimated to do," it means they have completed the assignment and produced the appointed deliverable which can then be reviewed. If it has not been produced, the work is not completed.

This "estimated to do" approach overcomes the "99% complete syndrome," which is an estimate of the percent of work completed. The problem with this approach is that it is less than scientific. For example, the project may be 99% complete, yet it may take another year to complete the critical 1% remaining to work on the project. Under the "estimated to do" approach, with emphasis on deliverables, there is much greater accuracy in project reporting and control.

Requiring employees to prepare estimates, report time and personally assess remaining work creates accountability and commitment. It provides for the ability to manage from the bottom-up, not just from the top-down. The data prepared by the individual employee is "rolled up" through various levels of management reports; for example:

TIME DISTRIBUTION WORKSHEET

To view and/or print a blank copy of the "Time Distribution Worksheet", see the "PRIDE" Forms section.