Cmgt_410_Supporting_Activity

Accurate EstimatesWrite a 200- to 300-word short-answer response to the following:Why are accurate estimates critical to effective project management' What steps can project managers take to improve the accuracy of estimating projects' * For project managers, accurate estimates are the foundation for effective project planning and execution. There are many processes that have been developed to assist in the estimation process. Without proper estimating of project duration, cost, resources, risks and other parameters, it is impossible to implement proper alternatives and ultimately make timely and sound decisions.Accurate estimates are important because each project has the risk of added costs and time that weren't consider up front throwing the project into a state where you may not have the budget required to continue working on the project. Without accurate time and cost estimates project control is ineffective. Inaccurate estimates can make the difference between profit or loss. The cost estimation should include the initial assessment plus % available for added costs.To help project managers improve the accuracy of estimating projects they should use a checklist that includes: 1. Educate your project team and organization on estimating and require the appropriate project team members prepare the estimate associated with their scope aspect of the project. 2. Reach out to a subject matter expert (SME) with experience for scenarios. 3. Incorporate peer reviews and estimate validation processes into your PLC. 4. Incorporate Risk Management and contingency assessment /re-assessment throughout the PLC 5. Encourage estimate review and validation after each phase of the PLC. 6. Accurate and timely documentation of change requests. 7. Research historical data on the project effort, schedule, cost, risk and resources for lessons learned and make appropriate adjustments. Statistical baselines should be and revised periodically. 8. Use mock ups, trial runs, field studies or other simulations as a guide. 9. Adequately define work scope and accurately track time against each task. 10. Develop and maintain Basis of Estimate Document. * Organization culture can influence accurate project estimates depending on the importance the organization places on estimating. Use of top-down versus bottom-up estimating can influence estimates. How padding is and led strongly influences estimates. How organization politics is tolerated can severely influence estimates. * * | Project Scope and WBSWrite a 200- to 300-word short-answer response to the following:What argument can you provide as to why a project's scope must be tied to the WBS' What are the implications are if scope is not adhered to closely' * * Project Managers will not be able to manage the project without defining Work Breakdown Structure for the * work in hand. It helps almost at every step of project like: Project Scope Definition Once you are ready with * multi-level feature and sub-features tree, you can be very clear with the requirements for each work package.  * This will help to understand the functionality in great detail and to find out any queries which can affect the * development. Effort and Cost Estimation  The simple rule for good estimation is to break the work in smallest * possible unit and then estimate the efforts. Reason is that a granular structure helps to understand the * requirements completely and that further help to calculate the efforts efficiently for its implementation.  Work * Planning and Allocation Once we have smaller work units in hand, we can allocate these to the resources * easily.  It also helps to identify the right resource for a work unit considering the skills and requirements.  It also * facilitate to have a control at granular level by allocating very small unit of deliverables to a team member.  * Activity Management and their Networking Once we have list of defined activities at granular level, we can * easily manage the project.  It also helps in drawing the network of activity implementation after considering their * dependencies on each other. Dependency identification helps in task planning and sequencing so that no * resource need to wait at any point of time for other work item * Managing project scope and preventing scope creep are ongoing tasks the project manager must perform throughout the entire project lifecycle. The scope is the very essence of the project and determines if the outcome is successful or not. Many stakeholders may have many varying interests in a project because of how their work, organizations, budgets, schedules, or resources are affected. Because of this, and the many internal and external influences on projects, great care and consideration must be taken when planning and managing scope. Project managers must understand that all of these competing interests must be considered in order to maintain support for the project. By using the project management tools at their disposal, communicating with stakeholders, and managing scope as opposed to only reacting to scope creep, the project manager can maintain support for his or her project while ensuring all project work directly correlates with the tasks required to successfully complete the project. |