Types of Estimating Techniques

In project management, we will be doing estimates for time and cost. There are few techniques that can be used to perform estimating.

Estimate is a quantitative assessment of the likely amount or outcome. It should always include some indication of accuracy (e.g., plus/minus x percent).

Analogous
This is an estimate done using the values of parameters from previous experiences with similar activities.

Parametric
This estimating technique uses statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to calculate an estimate for activity parameters. For example, multiplying the planned work to be performed by the historical cost per unit to obtain an estimated value.

Three-point Estimates
This estimate is known as the PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) estimate. This technique uses weighted average of optimistic, pessimistic and most likely estimates.

Reserve Analysis
An analytical technique to determine the essential features and relationships of components in project management plan to establish a reserve for the schedule duration, budget, estimated cost or funds for a project.

Bottom-up
Estimating is done on individual work package of the WBS and rolled-up to get the total estimate for the project. This estimate can be the most accurate because it is done by the subject matter expert themselves. However PM needs to be aware of padding.

Or, we could do it the Dilbert-way :-) :

Getting to Know the Stakeholders

There are many reasons why you should Identify Stakeholder early in the project life cycle. Most important reason is that, your stakeholders can influence the direction of the project. Based on the information that they share with you or the things that they say to other people, your project is impacted by them.

Stakeholders can be anyone who is directly or indirectly involved in the project. They can be:

• The sponsor
• The customer
• Senior management
• Functional departments
• The public
• The project team
• Alice in customer support team
• The sundry shop 100m from your project site

The bigger your project, the more stakeholders are involved. And you need to figure out how to reach out to them and understand what are their needs. As the PM, you need to find out how your project will impact them during and after it is completed. We need to find out what is the extend of influence each of the stakeholder has and how their opinions or decision will impact the course of our project.

To begin with, when identifying a stakeholder, we need to know his role, department, interests, knowledge level, expectation and influence level. Find out as much as you can about each and everyone of your stakeholders. Also, we need to find out what type of information they require, how they like it to be presented as, how much they want or need to know, etc. Some people likes a lengthy, narrative, very detailed reports. Some prefer graphs and bullet points. Some just need a one-liner.

Next, identify the impact or support that you can get from the stakeholders. Each stakeholder will impact your project differently. Some will be supportive, others nonchalant. Some don’t event want to talk about the project. Check for:

• Power/Interest
• Power/Influence
• Influence/Impact
• Salient model – group by power, urgency, and legitimacy

Then, you need to assess their reactions and responds in differing situations. Observe your stakeholders during meeting or discussions or functions. How do they talk to people? How do they respond to questions? What type of questions that can make them open up to you? What type of questions that make them clam up? Are they a risk taker or a safe player? What is their corporate style? How do they negotiate or get things done? Try to learn as much as you can about your stakeholders, not only from other people who knows them, but also through your personal encounter and observations.

Last but not least, communicate with your stakeholders. When you have found out the frequency of reporting that they prefer, make sure you do it as you have agreed. Tell them what they want to know and always ask their opinion on the progress so far. However, be careful not to allow scope creep. The reason you continuously engage your stakeholder is to gauge the health of your project from their perspective. They will take the opportunity to ask you to include extra features or new functionalities, make no mistake. But use your charm and wisdom as a project manager to manage this. Remember, project managers spend most of their time communicating, so communicate effectively and wisely.

Project Scope Monitoring and Controlling

The last two processes for Scope Management, fall under the Monitor and Control process group.

Verify Scope requires the validated deliverables to be checked and verified against the requirements documentation. Why is it “validated” deliverables? It is “validated” because it has gone through the Quality Control process.

The inspection done on the validated deliverables is performed by selected eligible stakeholders. This inspection session is usually called the User Acceptance Test or UAT. It could also be called product reviews, audit or walkthrough.

Quality Control and Verify Scope could be done in parallel. However, it must be known that quality control is about correctness of the deliverable and verify scope is about acceptance of the deliverable.

At the end of this process, we will either have accepted deliverables or rejected deliverables; which means there will be change requests.

Control Scope “is the process of monitoring the status of the project and product scope and managing changes to the scope baseline” [PMBOK Guide 4th Edition].

Equipped with the project management plan, work performance information and requirements documentation, variance analysis will be performed to measure the work performance at specific dates throughout the project life cycle.

Based on the findings, there will be updates to project documents and change requests where applicable. Through the variance analysis, we will know the current health status of the project and subsequently deciding on corrective or preventive actions.

Gathering Requirements, Continued

In my previous post, The Art of Gathering Requirements, we looked at few tips on how to ensure that requirements are collected successfully. For today’s post, let’s look at the list that PMBOK Guide 4th Edition has outlined for the tools and techniques that can be used to collect the requirements. Let’s assume that Kat is the PM and she’s required to meet up with Customer OST to learn their needs for the newly proposed system.

• Interviews
  Interview sessions are normally done one-on-one. Kat will arrange a private that makes it easier for her to know the current situation the customer is in. Strength and weaknesses can be discussed openly. However, this technique can be highly time consuming; thus Kat needs to schedule the session properly and maybe pick a few important stakeholders for this technique.
• Focus Groups
  This technique is similar to interviews but it is done in group. Especially to a specific target group, for example the sales department, or the complains department, etc. Attendees are usually subject matter experts and qualified stakeholders. Kat will be the moderator for each focus group sessions. She could gather the necessary information interactively, however she must be able to maintain a positive climate during the discussion.
• Facilitated Workshops
  Kat can organised workshops between cross-functional stakeholders with she as the facilitator. With this technique, Kat can quickly see the inter-relationship between the departments. She would be able to see cross-functional requirements as well as the reconciling the different needs and expectations. Any issues can be discovered., prioritised and resolved quickly. Similar to focus groups technique, Katy as the facilitator must be able to maintain a positive climate to ensure trust can be fostered.
• Group Creativity Techniques
   
• Group Decision Making Techniques
  
• Questionnaires and Surveys
  This techniques are good for a wide number of respondent. Kat can collect huge amount of data in a brief period of time. With special demographic aspects, she would be able to derive statistical analysis quickly.
• Observations
  With this technique, Kat will sit down with the a user of the current system to see how the actual process is being performed. She can choose to perform “job shadowing” or be a “participant observer” where she is performing the tasks. This technique will be useful for Kat especially with people who are reluctant or have difficulty to articulate their requirements.
• Prototypes
  Kat will also quickly build a prototype with the information that she has currently to quickly get feedback from a working model. Some people can only see what they want when they look at what is being proposed. Several iterations of the prototype can be performed through progressive elaboration for the user to experiment and provide feedback. After the last cycle, the requirements collected would be enough to start building the actual product.

As she gather inputs and feedbacks from users, Kat will use several documents to refer to and to record all the requirements down:

• Requirements Documentation
  Within the organisation, this document is known as Requirements Specifications; where Kat will describe how each of the requirements will meet the business needs. As she collect more data, the document will be updated accordingly.
• Requirements Management Plan
  Kat would have prepared this document beforehand. Reason being, this document will tell her which techniques that she will be using to gather the requirements. She will also plan how the data will be analysed and documented.
• Requirements Traceability Matrix
  This document is essentially a table that links each requirements to its origin so that they can be traceable throughout the project life cycle.

The PMP® Exam is Changing SOON!

Starting from 31st August 2011, the PMP® exam will be different.

Approximately 30% of the content will differ from the current exam format. The Professional and Social Responsibility domain will be tested under all knowledge areas rather than being treated as a separate domain as it is currently.

The eligibility to sit for the exam still remain the same. All the pre-requisites must be met before you register for the exam.

• If you are a Bachelor degree holder, you need to satisfy a minimum of 3 years of professional project experience with 4,500 hours of leading and managing projects.
• If you are a Diploma holder, you need to satisfy a minimum of 5 years of professional project experience with 7,500 hours of leading and managing projects.
• You need to attend 35 contact hours of formal project management education.

Refer to the PMP Handbook for more details.

The new format will still refer to the current PMBOK Guide 4th Edition. 

Exams will still be held at Prometric centers. Check out their website for more information: http://www.prometric.com/default.htm.

To assist in your studying, you can check the following links:

• PMP® Examination Content Outline [LINK]
• PMP® Exam Prep [LINK]

For more information regarding the change, check out PMI’s dedicated page for it here: [Updates to the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Exam]

You can also access the FAQ sheet here: [LINK]

Above all, keep up the good work of studying and maintain your momentum. Whether you take the exam with the current specifications or with the new format, if you work at it, you will succeed. Eyes on the prize, people! You set out to get your PMP® certification and that’s what you will get at the end of it. A change in the exam format, will not alter this fact; YOU WILL BE A PMP AFTER YOU TAKE THE EXAM!

GOOD LUCK!

Three Ways To Fail Your PMP Exam Audit

By Cornelius Fichtner, PMP - Making the PMBOK® Guide fun

The Project Management Institute’s (PMI)® Project Management Professional  (PMP)® credential is a globally recognized certification of project management knowledge, skills and experience. So it’s not surprising that PMI takes great care to insure the quality of its certification process, from application through post certification.

When you apply to sit for PMI’s PMP Certification, you will submit a qualification of your education, quantification of your project management experience and classroom hours. If accepted, you can then take the PMP Exam. And if you pass, you’ll be added to the PMI list of certified Project Management Professionals with all its privileges.

You and every PMI certified professional deserves to know that their hard fought credential will retain its value and integrity year in and year out. PMI takes this responsibility very seriously. One of the ways they insure the integrity of your PMP certification is by auditing applicants as well as certified PMPs throughout their programs.

Your PMP application and, later, your PMP Status, can be audited at any time. There are a lot of rumors about PMI’s audit selection criteria, but the truth is that the audit selection process is completely random. There is no control chart of outliers or red flags.

So don’t focus on whether you might fit a truly non-existent profile of someone who gets audited. Focus on making sure your information and actions are aligned with passing an audit from the start! There is a positive and proactive way to approach your PMP application. Take these simple ideas to heart:

Your chances of being audited:

During the application process your chances of being audited are about 50/50 and drop dramatically after certification. Since the PMP Exam audit selection process is completely random, you shouldn’t waste your time listening to and worrying about the rumors of profiling or trigger conditions. Use your energy to properly study for the exam instead and take the time to make your application audit proof.

Being truthful means you don’t have to remember anything:

PMI takes its code of ethics very seriously and so should you. The more time you take to make sure your application is aligned with your experience, the better it will withstand an audit.

Document, Communicate, Align:

Take the time to document clearly your experience. Make sure you know where you stored your degree, training certificates, dates, documentation, contact names, addresses and phone numbers from your projects. Better yet, create a new project folder of all the background information that supports your application.

When you submit your Project Management experience application you will be asked to provide contact persons for each and every project. Be sure to confirm their current email address and phone numbers. These contact persons could be your managers, co-workers, vendors, clients and any other applicable stakeholders from your past projects. Let them know you’re applying to take the PMP Exam. Jog their memory of your projects by sharing with them what you’re submitting and ask them if they agree with what you’ve written. Make corrections if they disagree.

The Three Ways to Fail a PMP Exam Audit:

According to PMI’s Customer Care there are three ways that you can fail an audit: No Fault, Non-Compliance and Fraud. Let’s look at them in detail. First we’ll see what PMI writes for each, then we’ll give you an interpretation and our recommendations.

1.) No Fault

“Cannot verify education or experience through no fault of their own - No suspension period and cannot reapply until candidate can provide the experience hours and document them.”

You should be able to avoid this by making sure you have all your documentation before you submit your PMP Exam application. However, if for some reason, your education or experience cannot be confirmed, through no fault of your own, then PMI will still let you fail the audit. You may reapply as soon as you have your experience hours documented or confirmation of your degree.

2.) Non-Compliance

“Candidate chooses not to attempt audit - One year suspension period”

If you are audited and you simply have too much going on in your life to participate in the audit, then you can choose not to give any audit responses. Similar to pleading “no contest,” the candidate is subject to a one year suspension period before he/she can apply for the PMP Exam again.

3.) Fraud

“Providing False Information - Permanently suspended from sitting for PMI exams.

This should be obvious to you… Don’t lie! It’s not worth it! If you provide false information on your PMP application and you fail an audit because of it, you will be permanently suspended from sitting for any PMI exams. And they truly do mean forever.

If you’re concerned about not having enough contact hours, consider putting off your application until you do. If you’re looking for projects to fill in those hours, there are a lot of volunteer project management opportunities through community service and other non-profit organizations.

If you need a certification by a particular deadline and you’re short of hours, consider sitting for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® while you’re accumulating the hours you’ll need for the PMP. A CAPM certification requires only a high school (or equivalent) diploma and either 23 hours of project management education or 1,500 experience hours.

Although PMI can choose to change the PMP Audit process at any time, should you be audited, you’ll be asked to provide copies of your diplomas or equivalents, signatures from people that can verify your experience such as managers and supervisors, and copies of certificates and/or letters from training institutions for each educational course you’re claiming.

The PMP Exam audit process is a hiccup, but not a road block on your way to becoming certified. Take a little care up front, and you’ll come through it with flying colors.

About the author: Cornelius Fichtner, PMP is a noted PMP expert. He has helped over 15,000 students prepare for the PMP Exam with The Project Management PrepCast and The PMP Exam Simulator.

Where To Start?

WHAT IS PMP CERTIFICATION?

PMP® stands for Project Management Professional®. It is awarded by the Project Management Institute (PMI). This credential is the most industry-recognized certification for project managers all around the world. Having this credential means that the person has the knowledge and competency to successfully lead and direct a project. Read more on PMP certification.

 

WHO IS PMI?

PMI, Project Management Institute, is a not-for-profit organisation that strife for standardization and best practices of project management. We can say, PMI (and their members) are advocates for the project management field. There are several certification offered by PMI, and PMP is one of them. Read more on PMI.

 

THE COST?

I will suggest you to become a PMI member if you’re really serious in being certified. Reason?

• The exam fee will be cheaper
• You get free electronic copy of the PMBOK Guide (just for you!)
• Books are cheaper (if you purchase through PMI Marketplace)
• Lots of useful resources in PMI website for members
• Opportunity to explore the project management world better

Of course, you can find out more on benefits for becoming a member here: Benefits of PMI Membership

PMP Exam Fee – for member: USD $405
PMP Exam Fee – for non-member: USD $550

PMI Membership: USD $129 to join and USD $119 for renewal. (Membership is annual) – This fee is for Individual membership.

 

PMP Credential Validity

The credential is for lifetime, as long as you maintain your certification by reporting 60 PDUs for every three-year cycle.

PDUs are Professional Development Units, where you report to PMI your project management related involvement for the three-year cycle. Failure to do so will cause your credential to be suspended for a year, where during that time, you are allowed to fulfill the PDU requirement. Thereafter, if you still fail to do so, your credential will be revoked and you have to sit for the exam to get certified again.

Read the PMP Handbook.

 

My Personal Take on PMP

Let me just answer one question straight about the certification exam. For me, it is a tough exam. It is my first certification exam so far, but I personally feel that it is tough. Majority of people that have taken the exam will vouch on this. It is tough for me because it is not straight forward in asking the question. Most of the questions are scenario based and you will not find “what is this” or “what is that” or “define this” questions a lot.

The way to go is to understand the concept behind the what. Try as much as you can to visualise the whys to the whats. It takes you longer to study, but if I can do it, so can you! Besides, being PMP certified is not about how much you remember of what you read, it is about how much you understand why things are the way they are. And another useful tip that any PMP prep trainer will tell you is to answer the questions while putting yourself in PMI’s shoes.

Remember that the PMBOK guide is about best practices and I believe standards defined by PMI. Therefore, when answering the questions, wear the PMI hat. All about doing the right thing at the right time. Basically, live in an ideal world.

In many cases in the REAL world, the steps and procedures specified in the PMBOK guide will be mashed up. Many times you have to adapt to the situation and environment you are in. You will not be able to manage projects by the book, especially not with a certain rigid standard in mind. Being a good project manager is all about being flexible and versatile. If there is anyone out there that comes out with another set of standards or procedures to manage a project and say they are better than PMI’s PMBOK Guide, they still cannot be 100% correct. Because again, situational differences.

But to answer questions in PMP exam, which is by PMI, live in an ideal world, more specifically, the PMI world; where PMBOK Guide is the ultimate guide for managing projects. This not in any means trying to be sarcastic, but just the plain truth on how you can begin to answer the questions in the exam. Correctly, hopefully.

I suggest you take a little time to understand the PMP Handbook before you move forward from here. This handbook will be your friend as long as you have anything to do with PMP.