Respect The Learning Curve in Your Project Schedule
August 31, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Scheduling
Respect The Learning Curve in Your Project Schedule (#12 in the series 21 Project Management Success Tips)
By Karl E. Wiegers
The time and money you spend on training, reading and self-study, consultants, and developing improved processes are part of the investment your organization makes in project success. Recognize that you’ll pay a price in terms of a short-term productivity loss when you first try to apply new processes, tools, or technologies. Don’t expect to get fabulous benefits from new software engineering approaches on the first try, no matter what the tool vendor’s literature or the methodology consultant’s brochure claims. Instead, build extra time into the schedule to account for the inevitable learning curve. Make sure your managers and customers understand the learning curve and accept it as an inescapable consequence of working in a rapidly changing, high-technology field.
Adapted from “Practical Project Initiation: A Handbook with Tools” (Microsoft Press, 2007). A condensed version of this paper was published in Software Development magazine.
Karl Wiegers, Ph.D., is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software process consulting and education company in Portland, Oregon. Karl’s most recent book is “Practical Project Initiation: A Handbook with Tools.” Karl is also the author of four other books and 170 articles. Karl is a frequent speaker at software conferences and professional society meetings. You can reach Karl through www.projectinitiation.com or www.processimpact.com.
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