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On Managing Wrong / Missed Estimates

April 25, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings, Project Stakeholder Management, Scheduling

On Managing Wrong / Missed Estimates
By Pawel Brodzinski

You’ve heard this probably:

“Your projects are usually late. Do something about that. We lose credibility in the eyes of our customers.”

Ouch.

“And another thing. Last schedules you’ve prepared are unacceptable. They should be cut at least by a half.”

…and now you’re confused.

“Sure, feel free to cut deadlines by 50% and yes, this time we’ll deliver on time.”

…and you know it can’t be done.

However, the business perspective of the above is understandable (a couple of extra months of schedule can be unacceptable for a customer), and at the end of the day you need to comply and deliver hopefully something within scope, time and budget.

There is no easy answer on how the Project Manager can handle such accusations. The following list can help:

  1. Make your estimates as reliable as you can. Create a realistic schedule that you believe can be achieved with no hiccups. It’ll be easier to discuss that later on.
  2. Look for a compromise. A couple of man-months of development can be covered differently with different resources. You need different buffers for a newbie than for a veteran member of the team.
  3. Assess your environment. Estimates shouldn’t be done for veterans when you don’t have any in your team; take into consideration the other projects running in parallel, and their (veteran) allocated resources.
  4. Be assertive. When something isn’t reasonable, say it. When something can’t be done, explain why your team isn’t capable of doing that. Describe what needs to be done if you are expected to achieve your goal. More experienced team? Some training maybe?
  5. Talk about merits. Don’t start “it is so because I say so” type of discussion. It’s a dead-end. Think. Were past estimates good? Have you made mistakes? Why? Is what you have now a similar situation in any way?
  6. Admit where you failed. Don’t try to play the hero because you’re not. Most likely at least several of your estimates were wrong, don’t try to hide that; try to name reasons that lead to the current situation. If it doesn’t help with the current discussion at least you look more credible with that.

Finally, remember one thing: it isn’t a win-lose only scenario. You can end with win-win or lose-lose too. The former should be your goal.

Pawel’s experience in software development covers a bunch of positions in both rank and file and management roles. He worked in quality assurance, software development, design, support and implementation teams. He also managed different teams from small group of testers up to ERP system development department. While spending most of his career working on enterprise and carrier grade systems, he did play some roles in micro-ISVs. Pawel’s blog can be found at: blog.brodzinski.com.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, April 25th, 2009 and is filed under Project Management Musings, Project Stakeholder Management, Scheduling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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