Chapter 7
Planning: time and cost
The link between products and tasks
The importance of knowing what must be delivered cannot be underestimated, but there comes a point when estimates of time and cost must be produced. To do this, you need to know what tasks will be necessary to deliver each product.
Many products begin life in draft form using the product description as a guide. Once the draft has been completed, it is usual for a review to take place. This is where one of the quality methods referred to in the product description will be employed. As the product is compared with the product description, reviewers identify errors, which they note and to which the developer must attend. Once the amendments have been made, it should be possible to submit the product for final approval.
The process can be summarised as:
- develop draft product;
- review product;
- amend product;
- approve product.
When drawing up a plan, it is helpful to know the relationship between products and tasks. Products are created as a result of the tasks above or any others considered essential. Therefore, a sequence of tasks must be performed to deliver each product on the product flow diagram. When imagining the list of things that must be done to complete the project, it is sensible to think of a sequence of products (the product flow diagram) in which each has a life cycle. The list will look like this:
| Product 1 | Product 2 |
|
|
and so on.
This ...
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