Comments on: Serial Monogamy Project Participation

By: Brendan

Brendan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:09:13 +0000

I think this approach is ideal when developing products. However, what if you have an established product that you are selling externally? Clients need some basic understanding of when features will be completed. If you are asking them for 6 and 7 figure dollars, simply saying we are working on only one project now may cause them to take their business elsewhere. What about revenue forecasting? If I am going to my CEO and saying that we can not earn such and such revenue because the team needs slack time, I will get fired. Do not get me wrong, I am a believer in slack time and its benefits, many unplanned activities come up regularly and teams should be empowered. But as a head of a PMO, this puts resource planning and revenue forecasting at odds with one another. We are actively managing this by developing adaptive release plans based on team capacities. This allows us to make loose commitments based on a ever changing plan (which we are ok with) and engage with clients on a fix time and cost basis.

By: Jim Ward

Jim Ward — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:01:49 +0000

When I teach project management, I use something called a “Productivity Factor” developed by the Keane consulting organization. Only a certain percentage of an individual’s time is available for project work, whether they are dedicated to a single project (the ideal situation) or more that one project (not ideal). That factor in most organizations is significantly less that 80% in my experience, usually between 60-70%. So even if someone is assigned full time to a single project, we can expect that the person will devote 3 to 3 1/2 days per week of effort to that project. This is a realistic performance estimate, allows time for the other activities you suggest and avoids much of the schedule slippage and excessive overtime that plague many projects.

By: Dwayne Phillips

Dwayne Phillips — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 12:45:55 +0000

I like the twist on your theme. Slack or “management reserve” is important. I guess you are talking about “personal reserve.” The ability to surge into something else is important.

By: TheoRadical » Blog Archive » One Thing at a Time

TheoRadical » Blog Archive » One Thing at a Time — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:26:33 +0000

[...] Over at MPD they’re talking about doing one project at a time. Recently, I have been doing this at work as well. I schedule out which things I am working on each day, and I try to keep it to one large task, or two smalls tasks. This gives enough padding to achieve the 80% “committed” the article talks about. If you’re spread all over hell going 100% all the time, the very next interruption will ruin everything. You’re next three projects will all be late and poor quality. [...]