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Plan Development: Task Duration
Quick Summary
This is the fourth in a series of six templates for project plan development. This template describes the process of assigning durations to tasks.
What this is
This is the fourth in a series of six templates for project plan development. This template describes the process of assigning durations to tasks. The same table that was provided in the template Plan Development – Task Assignment and Deliverables is repeated in this template, with the process focused on the Duration column. The process of estimating durations should be done after the first pass of identifying task dependencies, so that any task repartitioning resulting from identifying dependencies has already been done.
Why it's useful
Duration estimation should be done very visibly, with the active involvement of the people who will actually be executing the tasks. The person responsible for delivering a task must commit to the duration estimate. These people know at the working level what it takes to get the job done, what their work environment is like, what tools and other supporting resources are available, etc.
How to use it
At this point, tasks have been identified and dependencies specified. Make a first pass at estimating each task's duration, using previous experience, expert opinion, or statistical estimation techniques such as Monte Carlo analysis. If a task's duration exceeds 2 weeks, try to break it down into multiple tasks. Tasks whose durations have a high degree of uncertainty should be marked clearly as schedule risks. You may want to capture minimum and maximum duration estimates for these.
Although planning is about to become very iterative among the task definition, duration estimation, and task scheduling processes, try to do at least one complete pass at estimating task durations without imposing overall date or duration limits or expectations on the people doing the estimating. "Influencing" the estimators with calendar dates may cause them to "doctor" their estimates to fit expectations instead of modeling the actual work necessary. And you'll end up with a plan that is satisfactory to your stakeholders but will be difficult or impossible to achieve.
However, don't spend a lot of time on this first pass at estimating durations. The next step in plan development, scheduling and optimization, may result in more redefinition and repartition of tasks, and the planning process will become more iterative among the task definition, duration estimation, and task scheduling processes.
As you estimate durations, keep in mind the following distinction between duration, effort, and calendar time:- Effort is the person-hours required to complete a tasks, without considering any slack time, waiting, non-working days or other delays. Effort (first-order approximation) is independent of the number of people working on a task.
- Duration is the number of hours to complete a task, taking the number of resources into account. Thus (first-order approximation) a task with a duration of 4 days with one resource will have a duration of 2 days with two resources.
- Calendar time is the time it will take to do a task, considering work hours, holidays, slack time, waiting, etc.
Plan Development: Task Identification and Work Breakdown 
Identify project tasks and develop a work breakdown structure.
Plan Development: Task Assignment and Deliverables
Track the assignment of project tasks to individual owners, along with the deliverable description and effort required.
Plan Development: Logical Relationships and Dependancies
Identify and capture task dependancies.
Plan Development: Project Scheduling and Critical Path
Checklist of project scheduling activities.
Plan Development: Optimizing Tradeoffs
Optimize a project plan after the first pass base schedule has been developed.
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