Project Management Case Studies, 7th Edition

Part 6PROJECT ESTIMATING

Some people believe the primary critical factor for project success is the quality of the estimate. Unfortunately, not all companies have estimating databases, nor do all companies have good estimates. Some companies are successful estimating at the top levels of the work breakdown structure, while others are willing to spend the time and money estimating at the lower levels of the work breakdown structure.

In organizations that are project driven and survive on competitive bidding, good estimates are often massaged and then changed based on the belief by management that the job cannot be won without a lower bid. This built‐in process can and does severely impact the project manager's ability to get people to be dedicated to the project's financial baseline.

Capital Industries

In the summer of 2006, Capital Industries undertook a material development program to see if a hard plastic bumper could be developed for medium‐size cars. By January 2007, Project Bumper (as it was called by management) had developed a material that endured all preliminary laboratory testing.

One more step was required before full‐scale laboratory testing: a three‐ dimensional stress analysis on bumper impact collisions. The decision to perform the stress analysis was the result of a concern on the part of the technical community that the bumper might not perform correctly under certain conditions. The cost of the analysis would require corporate funding over and above the ...