Prithviraj BhosaleDirector of Information Management| North Carolina State UniversityEllicott City, Md, United States
Would you use one-point estimation (Padding might happen) as an estimation technique for a short 4 week project? You know what your budget and time constraints are and there are only 3 members in the project group. Saving Changes...
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Alfred HortonCEO & President| AOC Connect, LLCLovettsville, Va, United States
For me, it would depend on the overall budget and complexity. I have had very short projects, four to eight weeks, that have had significant budgets attached to them and a great many moving parts. Budget, schedule, and quality are all important metrics when closing out a project; so even with a short project, you want to be as accurate as possible to guarantee good results. Unless the project is very low budget, very low risk and has no significant dependencies on its outcome, I would default to 3-point estimating. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
One-point would generally not be recommended for a defined schedule. If you said the project should be completed in a 4 to 8-week timeframe, then I might say this technique is more suitable. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
No.
You know schedule and cost limits. I would just try to double check if they are realistic for the scope and with external dependencies. Any estimation technique would do that, e.g. analogous or even just reviewing the documents.
I would suggest to build a milestone schedule from the end and have weekly planning reviews. Probably a kanban chart with backlog and wip should be reviewed daily by the team. Also make impediments and risks visible. Saving Changes...
Prithviraj BhosaleDirector of Information Management| North Carolina State UniversityEllicott City, Md, United States
Thank you everyone for your insights! Saving Changes...
That would depend on how much you care whether or not the outcome is as predicted, particularly if you have padding for contingencies. If it was one small project within a portfolio of many, then variance in the outcome might be considered "noise" and it might not be value added to add a lot of detail to the estimate if precision isn't very important.
The PMBoK uses a variance of -25% to + 75% for a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate. Sometimes that is just fine. As the leader of a small PMO, when I am asked to deal with emergent problems, I often do just that and based on prior knowledge. I might estimate the project will need X people for Y weeks based on an informal plan in my head and then fill in the details of the conceptual plan I developed to justify those numbers after I have secured the resources.
If the situation had a firm deadline and budget was a significant concern, I would use a more structured approach. Saving Changes...
Prithviraj BhosaleDirector of Information Management| North Carolina State UniversityEllicott City, Md, United States
Thank you everyone for your valuable insights! Saving Changes...
