CP DQ 3
Information from pages 221-223 of the book:
Estimating the Project Resources (pg 221-223)
Resources include materials, equipment, and people. After the project manager and the project team have worked together to determine the sequence of the activities, they now have to determine which resources are needed for each activity, as well as how much of each resource. As you can guess, resource estimating goes hand in hand with cost estimating (which we’ll discuss in Chapter 7). After all, if you need a metric ton of pea gravel, that’s a resource estimate, but someone’s got to pay for that metric ton of pea gravel. To estimate the demand for the project resources, you’ll need several inputs:
• Schedule management plan
• Activity list
• The attributes of each activity
• The availability of the resources you’ll need, in the form of two calendars:
• Resource calendars let you know when individual resources are available. This calendar tells you when Bob has scheduled a vacation, when a piece of equipment that your project needs is already scheduled for use, and even when facilities like meeting rooms are available.
• Project calendars communicate when the project work may take place. For example, your project may allow work to happen between 6 A . M . and 6 P . M .,Monday through Friday. Your project calendar will also identify any holidays when the project work won’t happen.
Risk register
• Activity cost estimates
• Enterprise environmental factors
• Organizational process assets
Using Expert Judgment
The project manager and the project team have worked together to create the WBS, the activity list, and the sequence of activities, so it makes sense that they’ll continue to work together to create the resource estimates. And they do. According to the PMBOK, the project management team may work with experts to help make the best decisions. This is using the old standby, “expert judgment,” when the project manager relies on someone more knowledgeable to help make the best decision. Identifying Alternatives As the project management team determines what resources are needed, there will be plenty of opportunities to determine which solution is the best solution for the project. Whenever more than one solution is presented, this is called Alternative analysis. Alternative analysis comes in many different flavors:
• Resources For example, employees or consultants, junior or senior engineers
• Tools and equipment Such as power tools or hand-held tools, newer versus older machinery
• Types of materials For example, oak versus plywood
• Make-or-buy decisions For instance, build your own software or buy a solution from a vendor.
Relying on Published Estimating Data
If you are a project manager in construction, the cost of the labor you use, the materials you routinely work with, and seasonal factors you consider for each project typically vary, depending on what part of the country, or even the world, your project is operating within. Many companies provide estimating data on the resources your project can purchase based on the geographical locales the project takes place in, supply and demand, and the season of your purchases. Published estimating data helps the project management team determine an exact cost of the resources the project will utilize.
Using Bottom-Up Estimating
Every time I mention bottom-up estimating in one of my seminars, someone snickers and pantomimes drinking a shot of booze. Ha-ha .Bottom-up estimating is the most accurate time-and-cost estimating approach a project manager can use. This estimating approach starts at “the bottom” of the project and considers every activity, its predecessor and successor activities, and the exact amount of resources needed to complete each activity. Bottom-up estimating accounts for all of the resources needed to complete all of the project work. While it is the most accurate estimating approach, it is also the most time-consuming.
Examining the Activity Resource Estimates
So what do you get when the project manager, the project team, and all your experts complete the activity resource process? You get the requirements for all the project re-sources. Not a trick question! The process allows the project manager, the project team, management, and your key stakeholders to see the needed resources to complete each work package in the WBS. Specifically, at the end of this process you’ll have:
• Resource requirements for each activity -You’ll know what resources are needed, the assumption your project management team used to create the requirements, and the basis for each estimate.
• Updates to the project documents -You may have errors and omissions, change requests, and discoveries about and around the activities that you’re estimating. If the activities or their attributes change, you’ll have to update your original activity list to reflect these changes. Updates to the calendar are based on the creation of the activity resource requirements. If change requests enter the project, the resource availability and demand may shift, which could affect the resource calendar.
• Resource breakdown structure- This is a hierarchical breakdown of the project resources by category and resource type. For example, you could have a category of equipment, a category of human resources, and a category of materials. Within each category, you could identify the types of equipment your project will use, the types of human resources, and the types of materials.
Estimating Activity Durations
How many times have you heard management ask, “Now how long will all of this take?”Countless times, right? And maybe right after that: “How much will all of this cost?” We’ll talk about cost estimates in Chapter 7. For now, let’s talk about time. The answer to the question “How long will it take?” depends on the accuracy of the estimates, the consistency of the work, and other variables within the project. The best a project manager can do is to create honest estimates based on the information pro- vided. Until the schedule is finalized, no one will know the duration of the project. First, you identify the activities, sequence the activities, define the resources, and then estimate durations. These processes are needed to complete the project schedule and the project duration estimate. These four processes are iterated as more information becomes available. If the proposed schedule is acceptable, the project can move forward. If the proposed schedule takes too long, the scheduler can use a few strategies to compress the project. We’ll discuss the art of scheduling in a few moments. Activity duration estimates, like the activity list and the WBS, don’t come from the project manager—they come from the people completing the work. The estimates may also undergo progressive elaboration. In this section, we’ll examine the approach to completing activity duration estimates, the basis of these estimates, and allow for activity list updates.
