In This Issue:
From the Editor
Kent McDonald on Running the Numbers
Featured Templates
Let's Just Say It's Poetically True
Best 3 out of 5?
What Were We Talking About Again?
We Are the Deciders
NEW - How Much Is That Risk Worth?
Do We Have a Choice?
Featured Bundle: Project Status Reports - Multi-User License
Where's ProjectConnections?
Corporate Subscriptions
From the Editor
This week, columnist Kent McDonald wrote about how even simple financial modeling can make project decisions just a little clearer and easier, and included a timely reminder that while all commitments are decisions, not all decisions are commitments. That really resonated, because the hardest part of project management isn't necessarily trying to get everything done; quite often, it's deciding what to do. Feature A, or feature B? On time, or on budget? Run with the great new idea, or stick with the original plan? It's the apparent finality of it all that's so intimidating. Sorting out all the variables can be a challenge, and it doesn't help that we're inevitably working with best guesses and incomplete information. So what's a project manager to do? Naturally, we do the best job we can with the best guesses and information we have available, and do everything we can to improve the quality of that information.
So to compliment Kent's column, we've decided (and now committed) to remind you of some tools you can use to make your project decisions just a little easier, even if you're not ready to venture into the wide world of Fun With Numbers. You can work with estimates that are just a little better (and have just a little more patience with those that aren't), take just a little more time to test the design choices, make the discussions (aka meetings) just a little more productive, spend just a little more time evaluating what those risks will really cost. Small improvements in lots of areas can often result in a huge improvement on the project overall, just like several small tweaks in a financial model can completely change the landscape in a spreadsheet. Decide early, decide often; just don't commit until you have to.
Featured Article
Running the Numbers, by Kent McDonald
Knowing your options can be helpful, but not very enlightening if you can't easily see the result of those options on the overall project. I built my financial model in a spreadsheet so I can easily change key input data (additional food and beverage items, detailed audio/visual line items, number of sponsorships, and number of registrants, for example) and quickly see the resulting revenue or loss from the event. Building a similar financial model for your project allows you to revise costs and expected revenues to quickly get an up-to-date picture of how successful (or not) your project will be in terms of value delivery. Read more »
Budgets show how much money a project takes. Building a simple financial model shows you how they make money too.
Want to hear more from Kent? He'll be in Toronto August 4-8 for Agile 2008, both speaking and serving as Stage Producer for the Customer and Business Value Stage.
Featured Templates
Let's Just Say It's Poetically True – Estimating Process and Methods - SPECIALThis Premium resource is free to registered Members until July 10, 2008
Not sure how trustworthy those estimates are? You'll have a better idea if you're sure of the methods used to create them. This guideline discusses some of the nitty-gritty details of the estimating processes, and outlines some of the more common methods used to throw a stake into the sand. In addition to acting as a double check for your own methods, it could make a good training tool for new PMs (or engineers) who would like to provide estimates based on something better than gut instinct. Download the Template »
Best 3 out of 5? – Pete's Estimating Laws - MEMBER
You followed all the so-called rules, and the project estimates still didn't match up to reality. Well, they don't call them "estimates" for nothing. Pete's Estimating Laws remind us-using a good dose of humor and a sizeable reality check-that just because completely accurate estimates are the stuff of dreams doesn't mean we should stop trying to improve them. This loosely bound set of 18 "Universal Laws" (more or less) provides amusing insight into possible influences on our estimates, and common errors we encounter when making them. Incorporating these laws into your schedule estimates makes you at least 80% more likely to tolerate the inevitable variations between those estimates and reality-roughly speaking, of course. Download the Template »
What Were We Talking About Again? – Team Meeting Agenda - SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until July 10, 2008
Sometimes there's no avoiding it-you just have to get everyone into a room to hash things out. That doesn't mean that it has to be a hash. Meetings can go well, quickly, and smoothly if we take the time to plan them a little more thoroughly. The key is to go in knowing what we want to get out of it-options, decisions, or commitments. Our sample agenda will help you keep the meeting on track and the conversations on target, so you can make the decisions that much less stressful. Download the Agenda »
We Are the Deciders – Agenda for Preliminary Design Review Meeting - MEMBER
Deciding what you want and getting what you expect don't necessarily go hand in hand. By the time you get from initial vision to an initial design (let alone from design to reality), your design concepts can vary vastly from the original intent. Preliminary Design Reviews remind us to keep testing our design concepts against the Project Vision, to uncover their implications very early on. This agenda shows how to structure a PDR meeting to thoroughly test the project's design choices, and to make sure any variance is acceptable, purposeful, and consciously decided. Download the Agenda »
NEW - We'll Just Call It Retro – Calculating Expected Monetary Value of Risks - PREMIUM
Manufacturing says the paint colors are "just a little off." How much does it really matter? How much time and money should the team devote to avoiding it? This template from Carl Pritchard of Pritchard Management Associates helps teams think through and communicate the true potential impact of their projects' risks, making it easier to determine appropriate budgetary values and set-asides for risk management. Best of all, the guideline shows you how to base it on quantifiable numbers based on the real potential impact, not drama and hyperbole. After all, is it really that terrible if everything comes out of production colored lime green and neon orange? (On second thought...) Download the Template »
Maybe We Could Go With a Nice, Neutral Puce? – Project Alternative Tradeoffs Table - PREMIUM
Well, if we can't do lime green and orange, what are the alternatives? Brainstorming options is one thing, but understanding the implications of those options means thinking them through as thoroughly as possible. This table format that gives your team a concise way to document, analyze, and communicate the alternatives you are considering for scope and features, as well as issue/risk management. Capture the critical factors associated with each design alternative under consideration, and compare the impact of various combinations on the project's cost, schedule, resources, and risk, so you can make an informed choice based on more than gut instinct and a lingering fear of the 70's. Download the Template »
Featured Bundle
Project Status Reports - Multi-User License
Another day, another project, another status report. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some consistency from team to team, and from project to project? A multi-user license for our Status Reports bundle can provide a quick, easy, and useful path to the consistency everyone's looking for, not to mention saving time spent re-inventing the wheel. You'll find over 20 variations on status report formats for different situations, many with sample data so you can see the level of detail other teams and managers use. These real-world examples will make your status manageable, understandable, and presentable throughout the organization, for a fraction of the time and cost you would spend developing them all from scratch.
Find out more »
Where's ProjectConnections?
Kimberly Wiefling is organizing another of her inspiring "Creating a Vision for Your Future" workshops on August 9 in Redwood City. The rest of the summer, she's globe-trotting in a big way: Tokyo on July 25-26 to speak on Leadership for Breakthrough Results; Frankfurt, Germany August 18-22 for the Global Leadership Program; and Cleveland, Ohio the next week at Case Western University for their Entrepreneur Program.
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
Want your team members to have their own access to templates and how-to resources for their project work? Need to share documents and deliverables beyond your project team? We make it easier with affordable corporate subscriptions and licensing. Detailed information regarding corporate options is available online. Give your whole team, or even the entire organization, cost-effective access to our comprehensive online library of resources. You already know how helpful it's been for you. Now it's time to share with everyone else. Find out more »Not sure if corporate terms apply to you? Check out our licensing terms at the top of our Terms of Service page, in refreshingly ordinary, everyday English.