Transforming Project Management: An Essential Paradigm for Turning Your Strategic Planning into Action

CHAPTER FOUR

How Long Will It Really Take?

A New Approach and More Accurate Results

Overview

At this point, you should understand how to:

•   Dissect a strategic plan into strategic objectives, then into a portfolio of projects supporting each strategic objective.

•   Break down all work necessary to accomplish each project, entering the information into a work breakdown structure (WBS).

•   Estimate the effort and cost of each activity for each component of the WBS.

•   Create an ironclad budget with all project costs included.

•   Roll each of the costs in the ironclad budget back and upward into each strategic objective, then into the strategic plan itself.

•   Monitor all budgets effectively with state-of-the art metrics.

Now it’s time ...