6
votes
What can I do when I can't adjust scope, resources, or schedule and a team member wants a raise?
TL;DR
Your job as a Product Owner (PO) or Project Manager (PM) is not to have all the answers. Your job is to have a vision, and to communicate options to stakeholders and business decision-makers.
...
- 50.7k
4
votes
How can you make a project succeed by raising budget?
The answer will be peculiar to the individual project. Wallace's law of project management the PM's primary job is to inform stakeholders of the effect of any change on Scope, Schedule, and Quality.
...
- 8,738
3
votes
What can I do when I can't adjust scope, resources, or schedule and a team member wants a raise?
Let's simplify your question down. Feature A is expected to cost $X to deliver and in reality costs $1.2X to deliver. This can be because of a raise, inflation, change in needs, or a ton of other ...
- 16.9k
3
votes
A project manager should know how much his/her project members earn monthly?
This situation is unfortunately more common than logic would suggest. It all arises from the projects culture, in general when transparency is part of the business culture, and of course there is a ...
- 131
3
votes
Project Management without access to budget or deadlines
So my question: how can I a) work around not having crucial information, or b) explain to my boss that in order to do my job properly, I need that crucial information?
In the absence of budget and ...
- 1,633
3
votes
Pricing risks when developing a project's budget
You need to calculate risk exposure for each of the identified risks then compute a work buffer to cover them. This is part of the Risk Analysis and Management practice.
Since this is a fixed price ...
- 15.5k
3
votes
Accepted
What is a budget of an outsource fixed-price project
Don't confuse budget with price. You set a price, but you build a budget.
A price is usually a number that reflects an amount of money you pay on some product. The price includes the cost of ...
- 15.5k
3
votes
How to ask a developer for the cost of building my website?
David Espina expressed it very pragmatically in his comment "Can you provide me a quote for this work?" The fancy name for that is a Request For Proposal.
That's a document that outlines the ...
- 15.5k
2
votes
Accepted
How can I produce more reliable estimates for technology refresh projects?
I don't have enough experience to confirm or rebut this hypothesis. That said, if I were in the position, I would propose the minimum possible refactor project (kind of like my academic colleagues ...
- 8,738
2
votes
Estimating and Project budgets
Assuming you've done the work before on similar engagements, you and your team's experience should be able to arrive at a probabilistic estimate for the work ahead in a range from best to worst case. ...
- 37.2k
2
votes
What is 'overhead' in a research project budget?
I will try myself at this answer.
Basically, "overhead" can have two meanings:
Negatively connoted: When negatively connoted, overhead describes excess and UNNECCESARY effort or costs, that incure ...
- 21
2
votes
CPI value at project closure
At completion, your BCWP or EV will equal your BAC. So your CPI formula will be BAC / CAC (cost at completion). So, unless your CAC = your BAC, meaning you neither over- nor under-ran your budget, ...
- 37.2k
2
votes
Project budgeting by financial year vs lifetime?
Your business is an operations that make money performing projects. Your business is based on its fiscal year and, if public, to the fiscal quarter. The project's year is irrelevant to the business. ...
- 37.2k
2
votes
What can I do when I can't adjust scope, resources, or schedule and a team member wants a raise?
If you want a salary increase, I need to be able to justify it by showing that your your work saves costs on other elements of the project.
Is your code of sufficient quality that the total cost of ...
- 8,738
2
votes
Project Management without access to budget or deadlines
If you do not know what your targets are to which to plan and to work, then you have zero accountability and responsibility for those targets. None.
Focus on doing the job and doing the job well. ...
- 37.2k
2
votes
Accepted
Can code base metrics be used for budgeting for software engineering or code maintenance?
TL;DR
Level of effort and complexity are much better metrics for estimating work than lines of code (LOC). Furthermore, they can only be effectively estimated by the people who will be doing the ...
- 50.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Pricing risks when developing a project's budget
You can calculate the expected monetary value (probability x financial impact) for those risks you identify in advance of proposal submission and add that to the price. The issue with this approach ...
- 37.2k
2
votes
Accepted
What does it technically mean to be a budget owner?
The Budget Holder is the individual who is ultimately accountable for ensuring that the budget is followed. Budget holders are usually the company's managers and operational directors, who are tasked ...
- 192
2
votes
Change Management
This sounds like a typical "waterfall" project, rather than an agile one, given your description of the situation. There are two issues here:
The project is already over budget and behind ...
- 6,908
1
vote
How can you make a project succeed by raising budget?
Scope, Schedule and Quality define "What" the project should deliver, however they don't define "How" it will deliver. As stated in other answers, more budget can allow the "...
- 6,908
1
vote
How can you make a project succeed by raising budget?
The iron triangle of cost, scope, time, pick only two, is a model of project constraints. It's a good model, but sometimes confuses people who think they can only work on one dimension, while keeping ...
- 15.5k
1
vote
How can you make a project succeed by raising budget?
Budget as the Unbound Constraint
Throwing money at a sunk cost won't "save" a failing project, but if you don't allocate adequate resources to meet your other project constraints then a ...
- 50.7k
1
vote
Can code base metrics be used for budgeting for software engineering or code maintenance?
I've been using Weighted Micro Function Points metrics to get initial quick estimate of time/budget (for development part) , and it works very well for me (since doing a manual estimate takes too long ...
- 11
1
vote
Can code base metrics be used for budgeting for software engineering or code maintenance?
I have no idea what he plans to do with that information, so I can't say if it's a good approach or bad, but I would struggle to do any meaningful budgeting with that information.
Generally, I'd look ...
- 16.9k
1
vote
Project budgeting by financial year vs lifetime?
To extend slightly on David's comment – every company of any size has both "the financial strategists who take a long-term view" and ...
...
... "the Corporate Tax Accountants.™" :-D
Therefore – ...
- 1,164
1
vote
How to negotiate a software proposal?
You have no leverage and have already lost your position. Negotiation is about information: an independent estimate of cost and price (best and worst case), mutual objectives, a list of alternative ...
- 37.2k
1
vote
CPI value at project closure
As @David Espina said, CPI is always derived from the same formula EV/AC. This is true whether the project is closed or not. What should the CPI be? What is your EV? What is your AC? The CPI is the ...
- 8,738
1
vote
Time-budget tracking monitoring for PM and client
I think you want to use the Earned Value Management technique in order to keep updated the budget. See the wiki link to understand why I refer to.
- 113
1
vote
A project manager should know how much his/her project members earn monthly?
Under the assumption that you work with emotionally intelligent individuals, I actually think that transparent salaries is a good practice.
Pay secrecy leads to decreased performance, whereas pay ...
- 1,113
1
vote
QA time budgetting
I always found the historical information the most valuable when I estimate QA and support costs.
Depending on the project, if you are re-using a lot of code, you'll probably need less time for QA. ...
- 74
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible