You’ll use these five tools and techniques to create the most accurate estimates:Įxpert judgment will come from your project team members who are familiar with the work that has to be done. Most of the time you’ll start with a rough estimate and then refine it to make it more accurate. This is where you look at each activity in the activity list, consider its scope and resources, and estimate how long it will take to perform.Įstimating the duration of an activity means starting with the information you have about that activity and the resources that are assigned to it, and then working with the project team to come up with an estimate. That’s done in a process called activity duration estimating. Once you’re done with activity resource estimating, you’ve got everything you need to figure out how long each activity will take. The smaller and more detailed the activity, the greater the accuracy and cost of this technique. However, it takes a considerable amount of time to perform bottom-up estimating because every activity must be assessed and estimated accurately to be included in the bottom-up calculation. Bottom-up estimating is a very accurate means of estimating, provided the estimates at the schedule activity level are accurate. It is a process of estimating individual activity resource need or cost and then adding these up together to come up with a total estimate.
#LANDSCAPING PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS SOFTWARE#
Project management software such as Microsoft Project will often have features designed to help project managers estimate resource needs and constraints and find the best combination of assignments for the project.īottom-up estimating means breaking down complex activities into pieces and working out the resource assignments for each piece. They rely on articles, books, journals, and periodicals that collect, analyze, and publish data from other people’s projects. Published estimating data is something that project managers in a lot of industries use to help them figure out how many resources they need. Many times, there’s more than one way to accomplish an activity and alternative analysis helps decide among the possibilities. This includes varying the number of resources as well as the kind of resources you use. There are five tools and techniques for estimating activity resources.Įxpert judgment means bringing in experts who have done this sort of work before and getting their opinions on what resources are needed.Īlternative analysis means considering several different options for how you assign resources. The goal of activity resource estimating is to assign resources to each activity in the activity list. Once you’ve got a handle on these things, you’re set for resource estimation. You’ll also need the activity list that you created earlier, and you’ll need to know how your organization typically handles resources. If you are starting to plan in January, a June wedding is harder to plan than one in December, because the wedding halls are all booked up in advance. You’ll need to know this before you can finish planning your project. Don’t forget that some resources, like consultants or training rooms, have to be scheduled in advance, and they might only be available at certain times. Resource availability includes information about what resources you can use on your project, when they’re available to you, and the conditions of their availability. Before you can assign resources to your project, you need to know their availability. Every activity in your activity list needs to have resources assigned to it. Resources are people, equipment, place, money, or anything else that you need in order to do all of the activities that you planned for. We need food, flowers, a cake, a sound system, and a venue. In comparison, Steve realizes that not all resources are people: “And it’s not just people. I’m totally overwhelmed.” From this statement it is clear that Susan is worried about human resources. “We’ve got so much to do! Invitations, catering, music… and I’ve got no idea who’s going to do it all. Before you can put the final schedule together, you need to know who is going to do each job, and the things they need so they can do it. Getting a handle on all of the tasks that have to be done is a great start, but it’s not enough to know the tasks and the order they come in. In the previous wedding case study, it is clear that Steve and Susan have resource problems.
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