Margaret LoveSenior Instructor| VelociteachGreenville, Sc, United States
I realize that the answer depends on many many things, but do you have a rule of thumb that you use when you are thinking about how long it will take you to develop a detailed project schedule? Examples might be 1 week of schedule development for every 2 months of the project duration or 2 weeks for medium-sized projects and 2 months for big projects. This doesn't have to be exact - just wondering about the different heuristics people use.
Same question for maintaining the schedule once the project is underway - 2 hrs a week? 16 hrs a week? Saving Changes...
Developing of project management plan at all - can take about 5% of the project time, if project is non-standard.
When it's pretty standart (for example, software integration in lots of different companies) - it's can't take much time. As i said earlier, for software integration for expirenced PM for standart project, it takes about 2-4 hours to create one.
Maintain... It's really hard question, because it depends on lots of factors.
Sometimes u need project management team member, who will maintain it 40 hours a week or more. And sometimes u can do it in 15 mins a week. Saving Changes...
I was involved in managing the Olympic games planning stage, and it took us nearly one year for that. and I planned some projects in one week and execution was 2 -3 weeks. Saving Changes...
Very interesting question. I suspect it would be influenced by industry. Not sure there is an easy way to evaluate, experience.
On a multi-year construction project, the schedule gets limited detail to start and is progressively detail in course of execution. Often adding three-month detail. A team of people is in place to complement, maintain and update.
In aerospace, airplanes are base on a common frame but customize to client needs. I suspect most have a basic template that covers most of the requirement.
Some repeating type of project may take hours to get the first level of detail by using a prepared template to start.
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1 reply by Mikhail Belov
May 17, 2018 9:18 AM
Mikhail Belov
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Vincent, rolling-wave planning i bet pretty good way to plan ;)
While i put my answer to Margaret, for me was next assumption:
time i used to plan at all, and make all plans and first-step plans to start - time i used to develop.
All other time - is time to maintain it, because, looking to the question, for me, adding new details, like new wave it rolling-wave, is time to maintain. You already get most of management plans, u just adding details.
Maybe, i'm not right, but, if we make assumption, that any planning we count - ur absolutely right, but while Margaret asks in view of developing and maintaining, she mean the way to plan to start project work, and all other time to plan - is to maintain.
IMHO.
Very interesting question. I suspect it would be influenced by industry. Not sure there is an easy way to evaluate, experience.
On a multi-year construction project, the schedule gets limited detail to start and is progressively detail in course of execution. Often adding three-month detail. A team of people is in place to complement, maintain and update.
In aerospace, airplanes are base on a common frame but customize to client needs. I suspect most have a basic template that covers most of the requirement.
Some repeating type of project may take hours to get the first level of detail by using a prepared template to start.
Vincent, rolling-wave planning i bet pretty good way to plan ;)
While i put my answer to Margaret, for me was next assumption:
time i used to plan at all, and make all plans and first-step plans to start - time i used to develop.
All other time - is time to maintain it, because, looking to the question, for me, adding new details, like new wave it rolling-wave, is time to maintain. You already get most of management plans, u just adding details.
Maybe, i'm not right, but, if we make assumption, that any planning we count - ur absolutely right, but while Margaret asks in view of developing and maintaining, she mean the way to plan to start project work, and all other time to plan - is to maintain.
IMHO.
Sorry for my sometimes bad english :) Saving Changes...
Margaret LoveSenior Instructor| VelociteachGreenville, Sc, United States
Thank you all!
Yes, I was asking about the initial development for the first wave. And then I was asking about the time for weekly updates of that first wave. Understandably, elaborating more detail in additional waves will take more time in the future.
My experience (18-36 month IT projects) has been about 5% of total project duration for initial schedule development (not including all the other planning) and then 8-12 hrs per week to manage the schedule. This includes time to gather information, which is the most time-consuming part of it.
I was just wondering if that was ballpark across the board or specific to my projects.
Also, I say "1 hr spent developing and managing a good schedule saves 8 hrs of project delay". But honestly I made that up. :-) Do you think there's any truth in it? Saving Changes...
What are you counting as schedule development effort? Is it purely the act of taking your network diagram, resource info and so on and loading it into a scheduling tool or do you include everything from defining the activities (below the WBS work package level) onwards?
Kiron
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1 reply by Margaret Love
May 18, 2018 10:05 AM
Margaret Love
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I was including gathering information, defining activities, sequencing, estimating, assigning resources, leveling the work, developing the initial wave of the schedule - the whole ball of wax up to baselining the first wave of the schedule.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Project management activities take 20% of total project time. From those 20% time to planning is 7%. Obviously it will depend on the environment.
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1 reply by Margaret Love
May 18, 2018 10:05 AM
Margaret Love
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Thank you!
Saving Changes...
Margaret LoveSenior Instructor| VelociteachGreenville, Sc, United States
May 17, 2018 1:25 PM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Margaret -
What are you counting as schedule development effort? Is it purely the act of taking your network diagram, resource info and so on and loading it into a scheduling tool or do you include everything from defining the activities (below the WBS work package level) onwards?
Kiron
I was including gathering information, defining activities, sequencing, estimating, assigning resources, leveling the work, developing the initial wave of the schedule - the whole ball of wax up to baselining the first wave of the schedule.
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1 reply by Kiron Bondale
May 18, 2018 10:24 AM
Kiron Bondale
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A lot depends on the scheduling approach used. For example, if we need a comprehensive end-to-end schedule at the lowest level of detail for a deterministic/waterfall type project, that will take significantly more effort than we'd spend on a project following an adaptive lifecycle or using a rolling wave planning approach.
Kiron
Saving Changes...
Margaret LoveSenior Instructor| VelociteachGreenville, Sc, United States
May 17, 2018 3:53 PM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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Project management activities take 20% of total project time. From those 20% time to planning is 7%. Obviously it will depend on the environment.
I was including gathering information, defining activities, sequencing, estimating, assigning resources, leveling the work, developing the initial wave of the schedule - the whole ball of wax up to baselining the first wave of the schedule.
A lot depends on the scheduling approach used. For example, if we need a comprehensive end-to-end schedule at the lowest level of detail for a deterministic/waterfall type project, that will take significantly more effort than we'd spend on a project following an adaptive lifecycle or using a rolling wave planning approach.
