Time and Cost Estimating Techniques

1243 Words3 Pages

Time and Cost Estimating Techniques

Estimating work times provides several benefits for the project

manager. It gives an idea of the level of effort required to complete

a project. This information then enables the project manager to

produce a realistic plan based upon that effort. Estimating also helps

the project manager anticipate the budget for the project.

There are many formal techniques available to estimate time and cost

for activities. Please refer to the Project Management Reference

Section for more details on these techniques. Anyone reviewing these

estimates should understand that they are approximations, not

accuracies.

Although the formal techniques are very specific, most of them have

the following tasks in common:

* Break activities down into small pieces for easier and more

accurate estimation. (WBS)

* Review historical information and compare to current activities.

* Include a contingency buffer for potential risks.

* Solicit advice from others that have previously completed similar

activities.

* Identify and document the assumptions and parameters used to

derive the estimates.

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is project management software. Project management

software assists project managers by providing a means for organizing

project information. A project manager uses the software to enter and

maintain a workplan that organizes activities and details. The

software calculates the scheduled dates for tasks based on the time or

work requirements of each task using a calendar of working days for

the project and its resources.

Microsoft Project is a tool to assist project managers in creating a

WBS, PERT Charts, Gantt Charts, and resource histograms. Other reports

and charts are also readily available for use and customization. AIS

project team members and managers should use the latest version.

PERT/CPM

Network analysis techniques identify early and late start and finish

dates for the uncompleted portions of project activities. The Program

Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method

(CPM) are examples of network analysis techniques.

The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is an

event-oriented technique used to show all the project tasks,

dependencies, and earliest and latest start times for each task in

graphical form. It is used...

... middle of paper ...

...y are achieving the task goals. This

type of observation can also be useful if aspects of team performance

are being investigated to understand how the team members are

organised and perform their tasks.

Communication and conversational analysis

Investigation of the patterns in the organisation of people's

interaction (it would be possible to use the principle of analysing a

conversation between two travellers, or one traveller and one

transport enquiry office operator in real situations, in order to

identify the needs for the traveller in specific contexts, what are

the difficulties encountered, how a system could resolve these

difficulties,... ). One of these methods is the language / action

approach which considers the language as a means by which people act.

Advantage of this method : it provides a complete and logical

conceptual frame in order to investigate all kinds of conversation.

Disadvantage of this method : many situations are characterised by

subtle communication processes not taken into account by the model.

There is also a difficulty in labelling an interaction and a message

especially if they do not fit into the request or promise categories.

Open Document