Читать книгу Project Management for Humans - Brett Harned - Страница 45
ОглавлениеCHAPTER 3
Start with an Estimate
Set the Stage for Solid Estimates
Estimate Time and Materials vs. Fixed-Fee Projects
Apply a Work Breakdown Structure
Estimate Tasks for Agile Projects
Finding the right estimate for a project can be difficult, especially if there are unknowns.
The roof deck on my South Philadelphia row home has been an issue for us from day one. Every time it rains and the water comes at the house at a very specific angle, we’ll get water in the room below. We’ve had several contractors and roofers visit our house to fix the issue, and every time we’re left with a description of work and an estimate for what it will cost, we’re completely baffled. One roofer says he’ll seal the roof for $500, and it will last us for “a few years” before it needs to be done again, while the next contractor comes in and says “we need to rip it all up and start over” to “find out what’s underneath.” His estimate starts with a $350 fee to do the demolition, but he doesn’t know what he’ll charge after that. These are obviously two very different approaches to the same issue with varying costs.
The gaps in approach and cost (or unknown costs) leave us wondering what the best approach is. One roofer can give us a solid estimate because he knows what he’ll do and how much of his time and materials it will take to get it done. The other wants to find the bigger problem and isn’t comfortable even giving a price range beyond the first set of labor needed to find the problem.
So, if we do decide to rip it up, what will happen if they find something else to fix? The house is a money pit, and we don’t want to keep spending money, but it needs to be fixed. We’re left questioning the budget and the timeline, but we know we need to do what’s best.
• • •
This is a classic case of estimation confusion, and it happens all over the place. The biggest issue is that when we hear “estimate,” we suddenly come up with a concrete number or date. But it’s just an estimate, which means the number is a best guess (and will very likely change). This happens just as much on digital projects as it does with construction projects, and that’s because we’re humans and just can’t answer unknowns.
Set the Stage for Solid Estimates
No matter what the type, size, or budget of a project is, estimating can be a daunting task. Every project request comes with a set of unknowns, or a gray area that makes a team or individual nervous about expectations concerning cost, timelines, and level of effort. Because the gray area changes from project to project, there is no simple way of saying, “It always takes us this long to do this thing” without qualifying it with some additional factors (“with these people, on this project, in this place, at this time, etc.”). It’s just not possible to build one solid estimate without doing some investigation of the work at hand. In order to create a workable estimate, you need to know your team, deliverables, tasks, and process like the back of your hand. You also have to be comfortable asking questions to figure out the things that you (and maybe even your potential client or customer) do not know.
You have to be very comfortable with knowing that there are unknowns on your project that might not become apparent until you’re really deep in things. At the same time, you must be very confident about the things that you do know, because those things will help you get to the unknowns at the right time—or avoid them with some additional work. A combination of knowing and not knowing details of your project will give you the confidence to come up with an estimate for your project that is workable and possibly even flexible.
NOTE NEVER FORGET
This is the Merriam-Webster definition of estimate. Keep it on hand for when you have to remind someone when your estimate goes off track (because, yes, it most likely will).
ESTIMATE transitive verb
a : to judge tentatively or approximately the value, worth, or significance of
b : to determine roughly the size, extent, or nature of
c : to produce a statement of the approximate cost of
Why Estimate?
While building digital products is not the same as building a roof, someone—your team or clients—requires a general understanding of what is needed to get it done successfully. Whether you’re working for a client or on an in-house team, you’ve got to answer to someone who’s in need of a project estimate. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why that person needs an estimate, so consider these reasons:
• Estimates are based on a level of effort and times. Typically, the cost of a project is based on the time spent on a project. Your estimate helps calculate a rough determination of that cost and sometimes whether or not the project is worth the investment.
• A good estimate will be based on specific tasks and the talent used to complete them. Your estimate will help you staff the project properly. For example, you can say a senior developer will need four weeks to complete a project, but a junior might need twelve weeks with some support. That’s a pretty large detail that will impact your estimate!
• More complex projects can be dependent on other projects or tasks. Knowing just how long it will take to complete your project might answer an important question about another project (and when it may have to start or finish).
• Working with a team can often be a challenge, particularly when no one is in agreement on the project. Working together to produce an estimate can be a great way to pull the team together to talk about staffing, responsibilities, process, and timing. And guess what, that all helps produce a solid estimate.
It would be very easy, at this point, to just say, “This is how you create an estimate.” But that wouldn’t work in your favor, because there is a mindset that is required to do this the right way—and feel good about it.
Learn What You Can
I work in the web industry, and I’d never sell myself as a web designer or a developer. I’m a project manager. That said, I’ve learned enough about design and code over the course of my career to make me horribly dangerous. I would never step into a project and say, “I’m the best resource to design or code this,” but I know enough about how things are done to ask the right questions and make the proper assumptions about how they should or could be done. This knowledge helps immensely when estimating project work because I can give a gut check on the level of effort related to any task on a project.
I learned a lot of web skills in my career and have had to stay on top of industry standards and major changes ever since. In addition to that, as a PM, I had to learn a whole new set of people, processes, and clients every time I started a new job with a new company. A career in project management means that you have to stay on top of trends, changes, and deliverables in your industry. It isn’t easy, because things change fairly often, but it’s worth it because it will directly affect your success as a PM.
