Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

For a project manager, I find the most challenging thing when creating a project budget is estimating work and determining cost estimates. The challenge is starting from the beginning without putting things into practice and making logical estimates for the project. According to Portny, et. al 2008,  a project budget is typically developed in stages, from an initial rough estimate to a detailed budget estimate through to a completed, approved project budget. On occasion, project managers might even revise an approved budget while the project is in progress to reflect changes in planned work and results (125).

I found an article on http://www.wikihow.com/Allocate-Resources-in-Microsoft-Project that lists four steps on how to allocate resources in Microsoft Project from start to finish. This is resourceful because it also gives a 7 minute video on how to assign resources using Microsoft Project. In this article Garet (n.d.) stated that one of the most important but often overlooked parts of the project management process is allocating resources properly. He further insists that learning how to allocate resources will help keep the PM in control of the project from start to finish.

Garret, C. (n.d.) How to Allocate Resources in Microsoft Project. wikiHow to do anything. Retrieved from http://www.wikihow.com/Allocate-Resources-in-Microsoft-Project

As I was continuing my search for resources that would be useful for estimating costs associated with ID projects I ran across this site for Dummies…just like the popular book. The article How to Estimate Project Costs http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-estimate-project-costs.html  describes a project’s budget which includes both direct and indirect costs. It gives a descriptive example and the direct and indirect costs that might be included with it. This website is also has a dummies recommends section that include articles about creating a budget estimate using the bottom-up and/or the top-down approach. There were other articles such as: How to Set Up a Master Budget, and How to Refine the Budget as a Project Progresses that would also be useful when managing an ID project.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013) How to Estimate Project Costs. For Dummies.  Retrieved from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-estimate-project-costs.html 

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  

Communicating Effectively

This week I learned that effective communication is vital between team players in order for a project to be successful. I watched a video of a message conveyed in three different modalities: email, voicemail, and face-to-face, I realized that it is not only how you communicate, but what you communicate to others is just as important.

Email: The email wasn’t very personal. There was no feeling of urgency. The grammar didn’t flow for me. I had to read it twice to get to the main point.

Voicemail: In the voicemail, hearing a name directly being spoken made it feel personal. The message was more direct and the tone made it more urgent. Hearing the words spoken after the email made it feel more urgent.

Face-to-Face: This way of communication is always more personal than any form of communication. The tone of voice sets the mood. I always feel more obligated to do something when someone takes the time to tell me. Yet during the face-to-face conversation, I felt the urgency of the matter immediately because this person is depending on me to get her job done.

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

The form of communication that best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message to me was the face-to-face conversation.

      I learned from this exercise that best way to communicate effectively is face-to-face first. I think that emails are for updating information and sending other important data. Emails are more like reminders from a calendar. You send them just to give members a heads up on something. A voicemail is a backup to a face-to-face. It is a more direct way of sending a message because the tone sets the mood. A voicemail however doesn’t take the place of a face-to-face conversation. When a deadline is about to come up and data is missing the best form of communication would be to address this person directly, especially if emails and voicemails failed to send the message. 

Learning from a Project “ Post-mortem”

The joy of teaching fifth grade was being able to perfect a lesson by the end of the day. I can recall working on a district mandated project with a group of fifth graders one year. I planned out a great lesson on Egypt. As a team of four, we identified objectives and goals, and created an outline with deadlines. We gathered materials such as resource books, online websites, videos, and Ancient Egyptian artifacts. We planned activities like designing a mummy, creating a power-point with important information, creating diorama of a bird’s eye view of Memphis, Egypt. Students also compared Memphis, Egypt to Memphis, TN. The planning phase was smooth and thought provoking. Each teacher shared insight and ideas about the process of the project and its outcome.

         We never had the opportunity to stick to the project plan step-by-step. With the daily routines and schedule already established teachers didn’t have the opportunity to go in depth with the information. I felt as though we rushed through the projects and the students didn’t have enough opportunity to gain enough knowledge about the topic. The projects were ok only because the teacher had to guide and instruct each group too much. Students were not as independent with their final project.

        

The following is a list provided by Michael Greer (2010):

The Nuts and Bolts: 10 Steps to Project Success

This part of the book will help you perform these essential PM steps:

Step 1: Define the project concept, then get support and approval.

Step 2: Get your team together and start the project.

Step 3: Figure out exactly what the finished work products will be.

Step 4: Figure out what you need to do to complete the work products. (Identify

tasks and phases.)

Step 5: Estimate time, effort, and resources.

Step 6: Build a schedule.

Step 7: Estimate the costs.

Step 8: Keep the project moving.

Step 9: Handle scope changes.

Step 10: Close out phases, close out the project.

         If my team had more time with steps 5, 6, 9 then the success of this project would have been more effective and efficient. The students did enough to pass but not enough to build in-depth knowledge.

Greer, M. 2010. The Project Management Minimalist: Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Laureate Education, Ed. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/USW1/201320_04/   MS_INDT/EDUC_6145/Week%202/Resources/Week%202%20Resour      ces/embedded/pm-minimalist-ver-3-laureate.pdf