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PM aide during the day – the power nap :)

Hello,

I’m a project manager for Hewlett-Packard and enjoy my profession.  A power nap doesn’t apply to all, as there’s some people who can’t get to sleep for awhile … maybe to tense or tight … then there are some of us … who work from home … didn’t sleep so well the night prior and sometime during the day are tapped … so I recommend – “The Power Nap” … which for me these days is about 10 – 15 minutes and then I’m good for another 2 hours at least … one can set the alarm on your cell phone {make sure it’s on the standard setting, not vibrate} and enjoy … I find I’m totally refreshed and can really be productive on the next challenge, as opposed to trying to push my way through and aren’t as effective as a moment will provide … and for those working in an office … I guess there’s always the jaunt out to the car for that quiet moment …

I used to drink coffee to muscle through those moments but 15 – 20 cups a day makes me jittery by the end of the day.  🙂

Hope this helps and … may your journey as a PM be an enjoyable one.

God bless.

Cheers,

Bill

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Define: Effort Driven Scheduling

 Effort driven scheduling: Calculating project task duration based on assigned resources.

 

When you assign resources to a project task in Microsoft Project, it recomputes the ‘Duration’ field.  The screenshots below illustrate this.  We’ll begin with plain tasks with no resource assignments.  After creating the tasks, we’ll assign the first resource, and then all the rest.  We’ll show that the ‘Duration’ column is changed when more resources are assigned.


Tasks with no resources assigned

 

Why does Microsoft Project recalculate the ‘Duration’ field when new resources are assigned?  The ‘Duration’ column indicates the calendar time that will elapse as the task is being completed.  That may be different than the ‘Work’.  If more resources are added, the calendar duration will go down.  That is effort-driven scheduling – based on employee effort.

 


One resource assigned

 

A magical thing happens when we assign multiple resources to tasks.  Notice that the ‘Duration’ column is reduced to reflect the extra effort applied to the tasks.  Since the tasks are effort-driven, they require less calendar time to complete.

 


Effort-driven task scheduling

–ray

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Overdraft Protection For Project Management

Many banks offer overdraft protection for their customer’s checking accounts. It could be for an attached savings account, a small line of credit, or another mechanism designed to cover any over-runs on your checking account. After all, mistakes happen. This is a little insurance policy you may never use, but it is better than paying large overdraft fees.

So, why on earth are we talking about this in a project management blog?

Well, it is simple. Do you have any protection against project budget over-runs?  Any last line of defense?

A main part of a Project Managers’ job is to successfully finish a project on time and under budget. With all of the variables involved, that is a tough proposition! For help with cost over-runs you may consider a tool like Standard Time®. Standard Time contains an automated feature that sends warning e-mails when a task or project is nearing the intended limit. In addition to the warnings, a Project Manager can set a “no pass” limit that will prevent an overrun or an allowance, but only if the Project Manager/Administrator allows it.

Task Warnings in Standard Time®

Nothing is fail safe. However, Standard Time is one tool that identifies impending problems and may be the extra nuance that keeps your projects on track.

–Warren

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Define: Resource Allocation

 Resource Allocation: The assignment of project tasks to employees over a specified time frame.

The chart below (taken from Standard Time®) shows an example of tasks allocated to one employee over three months.  The blue bars are correctly allocated time.  Yellow means there are not enough tasks, and red means there are too many.

So what does ‘correctly allocated time’ mean?  It means that a project manager has lined up project tasks for an employee to work on, but has not given too many or too few.  There are ‘just enough’ for the employee to complete in a given time.  The 63 hour week below is as unworkable as the 10 hour week.  Anything within 10% of a 40-hour week works.

 


Resource Allocation Chart

 

–ray