I was recently asked this question on an interview for a PM position.
What are the attributes of a predictive project work plan and why do they make the project work plan easier to manage? I had no clue what the recruiter was talking about. Can someone elaborate?
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Senior Advisor to the CEO| PMISterling, Va, United States
Although I have not heard of "predictive project work plans" as a buzzword - by default every work plan should be. The whole idea is to project (or predict) events/completed work/etc. into the future given what you know now. I recently put a blog posting out there about Liquid Planner that uses more of a stats-based approach to this, but I'm not sure if that's exactly what you are talking about.
Sometimes interviewers over complicate things. Maybe he or she just meant, "What do you do to make your project plans accurate?" If so, you could - as many have - write a very long book on the topic.
Depending the recruiters own history with projects, it might mean predictability of delivery of milestone (or deliverables) according to plan. Probably he wants to know how someone can guarantee (for what it is worth) the timely delivery of (parts of) projects.
Attribites then might be e.g.
- the size of indiviual tasks in the gantt chart (does it make sense to you if a task is one big chunk of 240 hours or would you rather have multiple tasks each being no more that 16 hours --> in terms of control the latter would bring you more comfort I think in the long run)
- the risk assessment on the organisation's project experience on timely delivery of projects Saving Changes...
Anonymous
The attributes of a predictive workplan are:
Maps back to the contractual requirements
Maps back to the Requirements Traceability Matrix
Accurately reflects the work to be done
Accurately reflects the staff necessary to do the work
Tasks are supported by detailed estimates, which account for complexity and risks
Includes a complete network of dependencies
Includes logical and clearly defined milestones and deliverables
Produces a realistic, accurate critical path
Is maintained regularly with actual time, and replanning for slippage and scope changes Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Here is another perspective to supplement what has already been posted. A project plan that has been built with the attributes already stated gives you the capability to do “what-if” analysis using the project plan. You can then model the impact of changes in resource availability, new/updated estimates, new tasks, etc. to predict new due dates. Also, as you post status to tasks, you can easily spot slippages and take action before the slippages affect final delivery. If you see problems early (i.e. predict), then you have more opportunities and options to take corrective action than you do after a key milestone is missed. Saving Changes...
Ramakrishna CH PMPDelivery Manager| Value MomentumHackensack, Nj, United States
I fully agree with Rich on his view. What the recruiter might be looking for is, what are the differences of a predictive Plan Vs a Static Plan with hard coded dates. An other name for it is, Dynamic Project Schedule, which as claimed is truly dynamic with changes/ updates of project events like change in resource effort, slippage of tasks, missed deadlines, new tasks, budget changes etc..It basically can predict the impact of all these events on the plan hence would give us the ability to predict the outcome in advance rather as an after effect.
Now coming to How tos of Dynamic plans, here are a few rules
1. Taks should not use hard coded dates.
Constraint dates should be modelled as a Deadlines.
2. All detailed taks should be linked at both ends,
except for recurring tasks, summary tasks etc.
3. Plan should be levelled for Resource loads
4. There can be several entry points for the project
but there has to be one and only one exit point.
5. All external dependancies should have been
included in the plan.
These are some of the rules for making a truly Dynamic Project Schedule, with a high degree of predictability and close to life model. Saving Changes...
Bruce McGrawCOO| ProForceAustin, Tx, United States
I have to say that in 20 years of looking at project schedules from projects - many of them are NOT predictive. I call those "Wall Charts" - because they are just pretty pictures and not usable.
A few things about a predictive schedule:
1. Tasks are work - and have relationships to each other - so there should be links.
2. Schedules are not static (EVER) and should be updated regularly and then adjustments made to the schedule. Not hard coded. if a change is made to one task then tasks that depend on it should change accordingly.
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