A good manager must be able to gauge those who work under him and assign work to each member that he/she can manage and finish within the allotted time. Furthermore, when creating the schedule, the manager must account for delays so he must set dates that are far ahead of the actual date the certain portion of the project is required so that troubleshooting and other additional tasks can be performed in case of last minute problems that may arise. Additionally, the project manager must constantly check for updates before the set deadlines to make sure that the deadline can be met. I believe that some of the methods a project manager can utilize would be to install smaller milestones/goals at various parts throughout the project.
It's ideally not possible to have a well experienced team members in a project. So PM must plan wisely such that he could manage everything. For instance an employee can work faster but not so perfectly. Other one take lot of time but work perfectly. So he could combine both of the in a efficient way such that it becomes a win-win criteria. Contingency plans should always be in place when on a timeline that a group must have work done by. There is always something that can go wrong and will go wrong. One strategy to ensure that everything goes according to plan is to have constant reports and updates to always know how close or far you are from a goal.
From experience, I believe it is best to overestimate the time a task will take whenever possible. If this is a new task, or a task that a particular project team has little to no experience with, it is almost inevitable that some sort of problem or complication will arise at first. There is also always a high chance for external complications that may have been unpreventable when performing the task. The biggest disruption I can think of that I'm sure effected the timeline of most projects in the world is the outbreak of COVID-19. Personally, I was half way through my Capstone project that was to be done entirely in a lab on campus when we were forced to go home and take our classes remotely. By the end of the course, my team was forced to modify our project due to lack of time and resources. Obviously, no one could account for a disruption this big, but this is a perfect example of how underestimating how long a task will take can put the completion of the entire project in jeopardy.
Being proactive before the executing phase can help keep a task on track and avoid falling into a pattern of underestimating task durations. This means anticipating any possible challenges with the task and extensively researching and planning all of the steps required to complete the task. For example, since my Capstone team was unable to go into the lab until about two months later than expected, we made sure to do extensive research regarding all of the protocols we would be following and tried our best to account for any complications that would arise as we were already behind schedule. Overall, the best way to stay on track with tasks, and therefore the entire project, is to control everything that you can possibly control and to always prepare for the worst case scenario.
First, when beginning a project, during the initiating and planning stage, the timing and duration has to be factored into it. That being said, things do change or go wrong that were never planned for; contingency happens-resources, product getting approval, equipment not getting supplied on time, pre-feasibility / Feasibility studies taken longer than necessary and the like. Project risk or the risk management plan also need to be considered in order to give a well rounded estimated time.
In an instant, where you estimate a project to take 5years to complete and be on the market, an extra 2-3years should be factored in just in case hiccups like the aforementioned happens, which are beyond the control of project team members.
Working in the Lab and Production floor as a Quality supervisor, have seen projects not meeting due dates or deadlines given by the customers and this has resulted in fines being paid to the customer. And this I mainly as a result of the planning team not putting into consideration the timing of the lab getting products approved and considering that sometimes, products don’t just pass analytical testing and may require adjustment during the process to get them approved to meet the required spec.
In conclusion, in order to avoid not meeting project deadlines or underestimated task duration, every department involved in the project has to be considered regarding any contingencies that may arise during the course of the project.
Deciding on how long a task will take can be very tricky, but also very typical. Any project has a timeline and some milestones that have to get communicated to the business in order to decide on a launch or production date for the product. Often times milestones due dates are missed due to many factors; one important factor can be lack of resources, people leave the company or get moved to another position which wastes some time in the progress of the project, since it takes a while to bring whoever is taking over up to speed with the project/product. As we heard in the lecture, some people call out sick, go on vacation, or campus closes because of the snow. All those factors sometimes are not controlled and cannot be predicted, however, they do play a huge role in the project timeline. On the other hand, failures and manufacturing defects can cause huge delays in the project timeline since the team spends time working on a root cause and tried to come up with a solution to fix the failure. Nowadays, any delays can be blamed on COVID-19 and how samples shipped late and people cannot go to the office to perform a certain test. The ideal solution to this problem is to have the project manager accounted for all those potential delays. One easy step is to increase the timeline for all tasks scheduled to be performed during holidays by at least two weeks since people usually take off and go on vacation, leaving the project with no progress. Another good solution is to have a buffer time, which can be anywhere from 1 week to 3 weeks for big tasks, such as design freeze or completion of Design Verification activities, just to accommodate for any delays. Some project managers likes to have a buffer to each big tasks and other prefer having an extra 2-3 months at the end of the project timeline for potential delays instead of adding those to a specific task, which also works. Based on my experience, I have seen many delays in projects and those solutions work pretty well, however, sometimes delays are hard to encounter for and the team has to just face the consequences.
There was an instance at my most recent job where there was a task at hand to be completed by the end of the week. Most of it was just coding work but as there was supposed to be a whole team on the job we figured it can get done early or at least on time. Throughout the week more and more of the team members were being pulled off the job to work on more "important" matters, one of them being myself. Long story short, the task was not accomplished by the end the week, instead it was completely scrapped and revamped for the following month.
As many have mentioned, overestimating a project's completion time is a good way to lessen the chances of the team underestimated task duration. When planning the project, the team must always consider all the things that could go wrong in the project, even situations that seem unlikely, and plan for a way to deal with these setbacks. Of course, despite all that planning, projects can still run into issues that nobody could have foreseen, like the COVID-19 pandemic, and hopefully that extra time that was accounted for in the project's completion could help lessen any detrimental effects to the project. From experience, a good amount of the project's completion time was allotted to research. Researching can help members gauge how much time a task or project might take. Whether it was changing one of the raw materials from the product's formulation or changing equipment used in manufacturing, extensive research went into trying to see how the change would affect the project. Even then, extra time would still be allotted to account for any unpredicted effects.
Letting individuals set their own due dates can be tricky. As you said, those with inexperience tend to underestimate how long a task may actually take to complete and thus can set the project back. This can be avoided by having due dates be an open conversation between the individual and their project manager. Instead of letting an individual set their own due date, the project manager can discuss the due date and use their own experience to either help the individual set a due date or to set a specific due date for the individual.
I personally have a tendency to underestimate the time it will take me to complete a task. To compensate for that, my boss and I will often discuss the task and I will introduce a time-period by which I think I can complete the task by. He will then agree or disagree to that date and I will try and get the work completed by then. If I am uncertain if I can or cannot complete the task by this point I will keep an open conversation running with my boss so that he is aware of where I am in the process. That way if there are set-backs these set backs are not unexpected and can be planned around.
Ultimately, I think the same goes for project management. Due dates need to be an open conversation and determining leniency on those time periods depends on the abilities of the individual.
Letting individuals set their own due dates can be tricky. As you said, those with inexperience tend to underestimate how long a task may actually take to complete and thus can set the project back. This can be avoided by having due dates be an open conversation between the individual and their project manager. Instead of letting an individual set their own due date, the project manager can discuss the due date and use their own experience to either help the individual set a due date or to set a specific due date for the individual.
I personally have a tendency to underestimate the time it will take me to complete a task. To compensate for that, my boss and I will often discuss the task and I will introduce a time-period by which I think I can complete the task by. He will then agree or disagree to that date and I will try and get the work completed by then. If I am uncertain if I can or cannot complete the task by this point I will keep an open conversation running with my boss so that he is aware of where I am in the process. That way if there are set-backs these set backs are not unexpected and can be planned around.
Ultimately, I think the same goes for project management. Due dates need to be an open conversation and determining leniency on those time periods depends on the abilities of the individual.
My Capstone Professor used to say "the devil lies in the details," which is a very true statement when it comes to project management. From my experience in this class, When we plan for a task and set its timeline, in most cases, we do not count for external delays, such as delays in delivery of necessary materials, sick person, and or tagged out equipment that we need to use for testing. Part of our project was to design an electric circuit with electrodes that can adhere to a thin polymer sheet during performing mechanical testing on the polymer sheet. The delivery of the polymer sheet was delayed, and the 3D printer that we were planning on using was tagged out for the annual maintenance.
One way of trying to overcome these delays is to work on multiple tasks in parallel, using the parallel method when executing the task helps to get other tasks going and ready for testing, instead of putting the whole project on hold. Another method is to use other team members to help in the delayed task.
I think this is very hard subject to gauge and something that once can't develop it only comes with experience. Reason being, regardless of whatever skill one may have it still difficult to tell the future, you can predict but at most you can be 99.9% correct not 100%. As several class mates have mentioned the best practice is to set individual goals for task. In the sense that once can break it down to day or week. The manger that I work under currently taught me this habit. Ever Monday, or Friday write down what realistic goals I want to finish in the upcoming week. Emphasis on realistic because only you know yourself the best and what skills you bring to the table. Plus if we write things down we are more accountable for our actions. This is good practice even for the PM as this teach everyone to be more accountable by your actions. In addition to that it gives a PM a broad view of what everyone is working on. As everyone starts practicing this it will be easier for PM to assign tasks as he/she will know how long and how efficient employee so the PM can set realistic expectations for the team and project.
In my opinion, a project manager can attain enough understanding about the project and be prepared to come up with an idea about how to accomplish the outcomes. They will have to be serious and initiative when it comes to sharing their ideas and assigning tasks to different groups. Communication, organizational skills and time management are the tools to get something going in a group. I think just by having a strong will to accomplish something can take us a long way no matter how the circumstances go. A project manager can also be aware of the group they chose. It is important to chose the people who are willing to work hard and can team work within a group.
As a project manager, I would think that the most important part of time management is getting a good estimate. The most common approach to getting an accurate estimate of the amount of time to complete a task is to reference previous projects. If that doesn’t work or there is no previous similar project, including the risk of having a task take too long should be included in the Risk Management Plan. This way, you can state officially and decide with the project team on how to handle this risk.
There are quite a few methods that a project manager can develop in order to assist employees to complete tasks in timely manner. Depending on the project, doing research on previous related projects is one thing that can be used as a guide. You can review when deadlines were set, how long it took for task to be completed, and if tasks were not completed, look at the factors that played a role as to why. In certain situations, typically on assignments that may not be as crucial, deadlines can be set earlier. This can prevent missing the cutoff date but this method should only be used if necessary. Although I was never a project manager, I do have an experience working under a project manager where deadlines were missed. The cause of not meeting the target dates were due to lack of communication between workers and unfortunately lazy workers. During the planning phase, finding workers who are passionate and serious about the overall project is extremely important. Otherwise, it can lead to a downfall.
What are some methods that a project manager can develop in order to properly account for employees underestimating task duration?
According to PMBOK Guide:
- “When an activity’s duration cannot be estimated with confidence, the task is decomposed into more detail.”
- “If there are dependencies, the resources are reflected and documented into the estimated requirements of the activity.” There are to ways to evaluate resources to determine an appropriate bottom-up estimate, Alternative analysis (techniques and tools used) and Reserve analysis (contingency).
- Management reserves are also required in estimating durations to address unknown circumstances during project process.
- Meetings can be held with dept. reps. to discuss assumptions, concerns, risks, dependencies, decisions, and actions.
Do you have specific examples from your experience where you ran into these problems? If so, were you able to find solutions?
I only have one experience with bottom-up estimating. At my internship in undergrad (in a cancer research lab), I remember that meetings were held every other week (possibly on a Wednesday). My PI would always remind everyone of the goal before and after the meeting. She would go around to each person in the meeting so that they could present to her what they have done since the last meeting, their findings, and what is needed. She would inquire on an estimated time a specific task would be done (whether it be staining, imaging, PCRs, etc.). So, it is safe to say that my PI tackled estimating duration activities one task at a time. She kept the big picture (goal time) in her head and made sure everyone was on track (making some sort of progress). If someone were not making progress, she would have everyone, including herself, help troubleshoot. She also documented everything.
During the planning phase of a project estimations play a critical role. For medical device projects the cost estimation is not always straightforward as discussed in the lectures. Another estimation that can be misleading is the task duration estimation provided by individuals. Often times while working in industry you notice that team members underestimate the task duration completion. This can occur because of lack of expertise/knowledge in a new area of research or as mentioned in the lecture issues can come up such as being sick. There have been instances at work where we receive an estimate for a week from certain facilities on international projects and the task is not completed within the time period referenced. As a project manager these problems may arise because of differences in work culture/certain facilities being more busy on a another project and not being able to deliver on time. What are some methods that a project manager can develop in order to properly account for employees underestimating task duration? Do you have specific examples from your experience where you ran into these problems, if so were you able to find solutions?
Some methods as a project manager creating a chart to budget over and under. This means having different options to choose from so you are prepared for all possible outcomes. Also having a few extra people willing to assist is always good. If someone is sick or falling behind you can remain on task and still be able to get the job done. I am a visual person so creating powerpoints and videos to make sure everyone is understanding is important. I have run into an issue similar. While working in my undergrad years we were short-staffed. The people there were overworked and underpaid which caused a little tension because now we have to pull the weight of the others.What my manager should have done is said is here is a gift card or a raise or even lunch on me. creating a relationship with your team helps minimize tension when obstacles arise. Also having a few extra people you can call on when something goes wrong helps keep the regular flow of things.
