Just curious if there is a widely accepted 'rule of thumb' to estimate how many hours of PMO time a project will require. Projects are largely related to government customers, meaning that typically will be a PDR, CDR, development jobs. I would like to pick on your experience and for quick ROM's what to use for program management hours. For example if the overall hours for all departments, not including program management, are 1,000 hrs, what would be a good rule of thumb to use to estimate the program manager's hours? I.e. 10%, 15%,? Thanks for ideas. Saving Changes...
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Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
As for other things what you need to know is the role and the activities. For example, in my case project managers are inside the PMO then the time they spend in project activities are part of the PMO activities. I am assuming that PMO means project magement office in this case. Saving Changes...
I have not seen any widely accepted heuristics. There are a lot of factors that may come into play such as project size, governance model, whether the PM is part of the PMO or the PMO is primarily a change board function, etc.
In general though, I would say greater than 5% of the total hours, and less than 20%. Saving Changes...
To confirm, are you asking about the hours which PMO staff other than a PM would spend, or are you referring to project management effort in general (including the PM and other stakeholders performing PM activities)?
This really depends on the context of the program such as number of stakeholders, size and so on. It also will depend on the PM standards or methods used within the organization or mandated by regulatory bodies - the "heavier" those standards, the more time would be required.
Government projects come in all flavors from simple and straightforward, to bleeding edge technology.
If this is something your company has done 100 times before and you expect very few complications, than you might estimate on the low side of the range. If you don't have historical data to base your estimate on though, you might find that the customer is unique enough that you will carry a heavier administrative burden.
For example, government regulations may require you to follow some process their way, even though it does not fit your needs and you end up doing it twice. Another fun part about government jobs is the incoming administration may drive budget changes and you must then either accelerate or slow down your project, which drives significant replanning.
If you don't know what surprises this new customer will bring, I would be conservative and estimate on the high side. Saving Changes...
