Volumes have been written on this subject, so, let’s not reinvent the wheel here.
There is a key point I would like you to consider, however:
How much detail is the right level of detail in a project plan?
The current thinking is to limit the first level of breakdown to no more than 50, or perhaps 100 sub components of a project. The assumption is any more than that and you’ll be overwhelmed during execution, trying to get accurate feedback on progress, and updating the schedule accordingly. I think this is defendable where the update is manual. Careful here: You may be using software tools, but if your process requires a meeting or an email to get status, and then use keyboard entry to affect the update, the process is manual. This is the single biggest drawback to how most software tools address this problem. The assumption is a manual approval step is needed to allow the update, but later we will see this is not true. More importantly, that 50-100 max is hurting you dearly, as we will examine later.
Vision with me, for a moment:
What would happen if we just let everybody self report?
Chaos? Not really. If the next task requires completion of the previous, we will know in a very short time the next person cannot start if the previous work really isn’t complete. If the next person is not in a position to know this (by skill, or perhaps, physical access), simply plan in a check step, to be performed by an independent auditor. Incidentally, we audit everything, all the time, now. How about if we only audit where we truly need independent verification?
Now, back to the 50-100 steps. If we self report, and we automate the roll-up and reporting process (more on that later) we can have any number of steps. How many should we have? Let’s make a few rules: Each step will be assigned to only one individual. No step will be worth more than 40 hours of activity, or take longer than 30 days duration. Why these criteria? Because establishing percentage of completion takes your most experienced and expensive staff, and if we simplify this step to done, or, not done (0% or 100% complete) we can completely automate self reporting with computerized tools. But wait you say, we need percent complete by step. Yes you do, because you only have the typical 100 maximum breakdown steps.
What if you have 1000 steps?
Then each completion represents nominally 1/10 of 1 % of the project, if they are of equal scope. Use the actual budgeted hours by task against the total budgeted hours by project, and you have percentage of total project completion based upon exactly what tasks are done or to go. Here is one of the first keys to Project Management Best Practices in the new paradigm. Deeper, more comprehensive project plans, with no penalties, which lend themselves to execution across teams of virtually unlimited size.
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