Do you measure project manager's utilisation accurately ? If yes, how?
Lakshmi Kant ShuklaSenior Project Manager| BT Global Business Services Pvt LtdNoida, Uttar Pradesh, India
We have numbers of project managers working on big programs or if you are PM team manager , do you have any mechanism to calculate utilisation of project manager scientifically? Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Lakshmi
Interesting your question
Thanks for sharing
In order to give you my opinion, I would like to better understand what you mean by: "Do you measure project manager's use accurately? If yes, how?" Saving Changes...
Lakshmi Kant ShuklaSenior Project Manager| BT Global Business Services Pvt LtdNoida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Thanks Luis !
Let me explain my query better.
Any project manager working on a project, how they represent his time utilisation on that project accurately? Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Yes. In my actual work place project and program managers have to enter time sheets every week. My actual work place use TBM (Technology Business Management) as the basement to calculare costs and resources utilization related to technology and others fields. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Lakshmi
if there is a WBS element planned for project management, actual cost should be claimed against it (including overtime).
Only this way the organization can learn how much PM effort should be estimated for future projects.
Project managers should refrain from putting in less hours than they actually spent because the budget forecast becomes tight. Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
We use time writing within project online. A breakdown of hours spent in projects, overhead or other non project related activities can be easily retrieved using the suitable query. Saving Changes...
Remember that maximizing utilization is not the same as maximizing value... Saving Changes...
Joy IyerBusiness Leader in the Hydrocarbons Sector, Engineering Manager, Project Manager| Paton Engineers and ConstructorsMississauga, Ontario, Canada
Not intending to hijack this discussion, but I would be interested in learning from community about any tools or processes utilized by organizations for early signs of overutilization/overburdening of PMs in terms of workloads and taking corrective action.
Timesheets etc. are good for billing and ensuring attendance, but I have often come across PMs who are putting in a lot of unaccounted extra effort to manage their portfolio, only for them to suffer on the wellness front. Saving Changes...
Lakshmi Kant ShuklaSenior Project Manager| BT Global Business Services Pvt LtdNoida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Thanks all for input !
In fact , filling time sheet does not effectively quantify actual effective utilisation of PM.
I agree with Thomas Walenta's view of calculating PM efforts based on WBS elements.Unfortunately .. it provides estimated PM efforts but does not provide clear view of PM's actual productivity in large projects / multiple PM's environment.
Our intent of putting this query is to define actual productivity measures of PM not estimated one. Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
I am of the opinion that you can't measure a project manager's productivity - how many people did you talk to? How many words did you type? How many words did you read? How many problems did you identify? How many problems did you resolve?
All you can measure are results, the primary result being an acceptable final deliverable although intermediate deliverables can also be identified.
If the need is driven by client billing then you have to set up very broad categories, even then there is a certain level of creativity on the part of the PM.
I know of a large company that tried to measure a software coder's productivity matching time sheets to lines of code. Motivation became volume versus effectiveness. Same as for managers, you don't want noise you want value. Saving Changes...
"Impartial observers from other planets would consider ours an utterly bizarre enclave if it were populated by birds, defined as flying animals, that nevertheless rarely or never actually flew. They would also be perplexed if they encountered in our seas, lakes, rivers and ponds, creatures defined as swimmers that never did any swimming. But they would be even more surprised to encounter a species defined as a thinking animal if, in fact, the creature very rarely indulged in actual thinking."