Page 241 - DMGT521_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Project Management

Notes Step 2 - Estimate Time

When you have a detailed list of all the tasks that you must achieve to complete the project then
you can begin to estimate how long each will take.
Make sure that you also allow time for project management administration, detailed project,
liaison with outside bodies resources and authorities, meetings, quality assurance developing
supporting documentation or procedures necessary, and training.

Also make sure that you have allowed time for:
1. Other high urgency tasks to be carried out which will have priority over this one. Accidents
and emergencies. Internal/external meetings.

2. Holidays and sickness in key staff/stakeholders.
3. Contact with other customers, suppliers and contractors.
4. Breakdowns in equipment.
5. Missed deliveries by suppliers.

6. Interruptions by customers, suppliers, contractors, family, pets, co-workers etc. Others
priorities and schedules e.g. local government planning processes. Quality control rejections
etc.
7. Unanticipated events (e.g. renovating the bathroom finding white-ants/termites in the
walls).

These factors may significantly lengthen the time and cost needed to complete a project.
If the accuracy of time estimates is critical, you will find it effective to develop a systematic
approach to including these factors. If possible, base this on past experience. In the absence of
your own past experience, ask someone who has already done the task or project to advise what
can go wrong; what you need to plan for; and how long each task took previously.

You can lose a great deal of credibility, and money, by underestimating the length of time
needed to implement a project. If you underestimate time, not only do you miss deadlines, you
can also put other people under unnecessary stress.
Step 3 - Plan for it Going Wrong

Finally, allow time for all the expected and unexpected disruptions and delays to work that will
inevitably happen. Sickness, strikes, materials not available, poor quality work, bureaucratic
bungling etc.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
18. Activities with zero Total float are on the ………………… Path.
19. The ………………… distribution is appropriate for calculation of activity durations.

20. ………………… assumes that the expected length of a project is simply the sum of their
separate expected lengths.
21. The sum of the ………………… of the activity times along the critical path.

22. The square root ………………… gives us the standard deviation of the project length.
23. The ………………… of the variance of the activity times along the critical path.

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