Benjamin BaletProject Management| SIITOULOUSE, OCC, France
Hello everyone,
I am a software architect and project manager (mainly BID projects) in an IT service company. I have noticed that when I ask experts and developers to estimate all or part of a system, most of them do not know how to proceed, leading to unstructured and unverifiable estimates.
To address this, I created and presented an internal webinar on an estimation approach that is more inspired by the early stages of architecture (notably the decomposition into service functions and logical functions) rather than a methodology requiring formal training, such as COCOMO.
To my surprise, the webinar was well received, and I was wondering if this specific topic might be of interest for a webinar here.
Would love to hear your thoughts!
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Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Benjamin,
Good to hear you created a well-received webinar. Kudos!
The topic of estimating is undoubtedly of interest.
If you want to replicate your positive feelings, consider offering the webinar to PMI Chapters to spread your knowledge and enhance your reputation.
The France Chapter would probably be interested, as well as the Germany Chapter, for which I happen to volunteer as an event manager.
I'm tagging Laura Schofield and Kimberly Whitby as they would be able to work with you to determine whether this webinar would be appropriate for this community. It is pretty specific to the IT domain, but there might be principles which others could also benefit from.
Does it require specialized knowledge that is difficult to come by? I'm glad you called out COCOMO. In the estimating course I took, too long ago, we covered COCOMO II and Function Point estimation. They sounded good during class, but I have yet to work with a developer who even thinks in terms of KLOC, and it's not something that I, as a PM, am going to come up with or teach them how to do.
The instructor also introduced us to a paper he had co-written on Syspoints, which attempted to incorporate complexity into sizing IT infrastructure projects. It was interesting, but not enough, by itself, to fully estimate a project, and not simple. If your approach is simple to both understand and explain - both what it does and doesn't do, and then how to do it - I am open to new ways to help my dev team improve their estimates. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
I experimented with Function Points (FP) in SW development 30 years ago, and it was quite successful/delivering value, albeit in unexpected ways. It served as an excellent QA tool.
You need a requirements document or a functional design as input. Then, you will analyze it according to the FP process and criteria, which are pretty easy to apply. While doing this, you will identify the document's inconsistencies, gaps, and contradictions.
For one case, we had an 80-page requirements document; it took us 8 hours to analyze it and get back with two pages of questions to the author.
After getting the updated document back, we repeated the exercise, more quickly, and came up with a number of function points. We could have used a COCOMO formula to calculate person-hours as an estimate from this, but in this case, we refrained. FP to hours requires historical data.
FP is the only analytical technique I am aware of that estimates based on requirements.
Project & PMO Manager | Research & Enterprise Mentor| GFB HoldingSouth America, Brazil
Good morning,
Thank you for your inquiry. I would be delighted to suggest some forward-thinking webinar topics that explore more innovative applications of PMI knowledge frameworks.
I believe these topics could offer insightful perspectives on extending project management excellence into emerging or unconventional domains:
Silent Stakeholders: Identifying and Managing Hidden Influencers in Your Projects
Ethical Dilemmas in Project Management: Decision Frameworks When Values Conflict
Psychological Safety in Project Teams: Creating Environments Where Innovation Thrives
Beyond Burnout: Building Resilient Project Teams in High-Pressure Environments
Beyond the Visible: Project Management Techniques for Virtual Reality and Immersive Experience Development
Managing the Unmanageable: Project Management Approaches in Creative Industries and Performing Arts
The Untapped Potential: Applying PMI Methodologies to Urban Agriculture Projects
The Last Frontier: Applying Agile Project Management to Public Policy Implementation
I hope these suggestions align with your vision for more disruptive and boundary-expanding professional development opportunities. Please let me know if you would like me to elaborate on any particular topic or if you need additional recommendations.
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