Hello experts, I am new on this board and this is my first post on here. I am glad to have come across such a wonderful forum for budding PMs like me who have a ton load of questions. So, a brief introduction about me - I have worked as a systems analyst for over 9 years and have decided to transition into Project management. After having cleared the PMP exam and a couple of other certifications (ITIL and Scrum Master) I am yet to land a PM job. So, that's briefly about me for now. On to the question(s) ... I am trying to wrap my head or at least visualize how a project manager functions in the first month or so. What kind of activities he/she will be hashing down at the beginning of the assignment. From what I gathered, the first thing to do is a project charter and after spending a few hours on Google, I have fairly understood looking at different templates that a PM will be drafting concise information about the project needs, recognizing the stake holders and at a high level, drafting any business requirements and other risks involved. As part of this activity, the PM will also need to provide a ROM (rough order of magnitude or a ballpark cost estimate). I dug some more on the internet and found a fairly decent template of cost estimation. For example, one template gives a detailed report of what kind of resources - man power, hardware or software and such, are required at different phases of the project. Now, is this how any project work? By that I mean, if I were hired as a PM for a health insurance company, would it be fair for me to ask the stake holders and the project sponsor questions like - I am going to need what kind of hardware equipment (based on the report from that link above) is needed for the project - I am going to need a list of project resources (with titles) used for developing this product - I am going to need a list of (yada yada yada) Is it normal for a PM to miss out on a few aspects while roughly estimating the cost? What if I forgot to include Firewalls or some kind of extraction tool that is required. Who can I solicit this information from? Assuming, I got all of the above parts covered. How would I factor in the time estimation (because as I understand it, the cost of effort is calculated based on the man hours) for each task. At the ROM phase, I may not have the complete picture of requirements that I can break down to WBS level. How do I give a number for the total man hours that are required to complete the work? I hope I have not bored with my questions and I sincerely hope that you guys will take my project management immaturity/inexperience into account while answering. Thank you a ton in advance! BA
