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Starting With Inch-Pebbles for Project Scheduling

September 10, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Scheduling

Starting With Inch-Pebbles for Project Scheduling (#4 in the series How to Use Inch-Pebbles When You Think You Can’t)
By Johanna Rothman

If you’re still concerned about using inch-pebbles, try them on a short critical project, such as getting a critical fix to a customer. On a short critical project, you have to know all the tasks and be able to assess their status. This kind of projects is ideal for inch-pebbles. There are a number of benefits from using a critical project to pilot inch-pebbles:

• The project manager needs to know all the tasks in a critical project, to create a highly accurate estimate.
• The project staff needs to know all the tasks in a critical project, so they don’t forget any tasks.
• Short critical projects may not be subject to the same sorts of senior management micro managing as a longer project may be. The project manager may be freer to just get the project done without interference.

This article is an excerpt from the article “How to Use Inch-Pebbles When You Think You Can’t”, which can be found at: http://www.jrothman.com/Papers/Howinch-pebbles.html

Johanna Rothman consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. Johanna is the author of Manage It!’Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management’. She is the coauthor of the pragmatic Behind Closed Doors, Secrets of Great Management, and author of the highly acclaimed Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People. And, Johanna is a host and session leader at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference (http://www.ayeconference.com). You can see Johanna’s other writings at http://www.jrothman.com.

Related Articles

• Total Participation Starting From the Top
• The Art of Project Scheduling
• Assess the Project You're Working On For Proper Inch-Pebble Scheduling
• Project Scheduling And Resource Leveling - Part 2
• Teaching Scheduling to New Project Managers

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