|
Home Our Company Public Workshop Schedule In-house Delivery and Consulting Workshop Descriptions Site Map Articles |
The Busy Person's Project Management Book
Tip: Pressure Estimation
It will be common that your management or stakeholders will apply pressure on you to come up with a "quick" estimate of how long your project will take. Many an innocent project manager has responded to the request "Just give me a ball-park figure.." only to find that the "ball-park" figure has become locked in as the estimate and that the actual estimate of time and effort required is much higher.
If someone requests an estimate before you have had time to fully understand the requirements, just say:
"Look, right now I'm not sure that I can give you an indication. However, give me a day or so and I'll come back with a much better estimate".
Then, get a couple of people together and analyse the scope, objectives, stakeholders and risk of your project and you'll have a much better understanding of your project and give your boss a much more accurate figure.
When put under pressure: JUST SAY NO!