97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 27. Estimate, Estimate, Estimate

Richard Sheridan

SO OFTEN IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT, we get an estimate for a project at the beginning of the project (when we know the least) and then never revisit that estimate during the course of the project (when we know more than we did at the beginning). Worse, we never compare our original estimate with actual results to hone our future skills.

In our practice at my organization, we estimate once a week on every project. Even for those tasks we have previously estimated but haven't worked on yet, we estimate again. Why do we do this? There are several reasons:

• We get better at estimating the more we do it.

• Sometimes we now know more and that helps our estimating.

• Sometimes we learn we didn't know as much as we thought we did, and that helps our estimating.

• Often when a new technology is involved, early estimates have "fear" built in; as we learn more about the new technology, the fear-based component lessens.

• Estimating is a great "conversation" in our world, since we estimate as a group activity.

Finally, the best way to get better at estimating is to make sure you also keep track of actuals so that the team gets feedback on how well it did in estimating. My only warning: you can't use this information to punish the team! True accountability around estimating doesn't involve getting people to hit their estimate, but rather to have them warn you ...