4.1.1.3.4P Validate Work Estimates with Team

(4.1.1.3.4P.P1)

One of the primary responsibilities of a project manager is to build a project schedule and assign activities from the schedule to team members for execution. After you assign work to team members you should hold them accountable for having the work completed within expectations.

On the surface this sounds very cut and dry. However, is it really fair? Let’s raise it up a level. Let’s assume that you are the project manager and you are assigned to a project after the estimate for schedule and budget are already completed. You might not think that was fair since you did not have a part on creating the estimates. You would probably think that if you are held accountable for the schedule and budget, you need to be involved in creating the schedule and budget.

Now you see the problem with assigning work to team members. Is it fair to hold them accountable for work if they did not have any input into the estimating process? The answer is also “no”.

There are two ways to make sure that the team members buy into the estimates for schedule and budget. One way is to see if you can get the team members involved with the estimating process up-front. This is not always practical, but sometimes it is possible. (In fact, you may need the help of the project team members to actually create the budget and schedule to begin with.) If the team members had input into the estimating process, they can be held accountable for completing the work within these estimates. (If the team members don’t feel they can be held accountable for estimates that they help to create, then you would have to ask yourself whether the numbers are really valid.)

On the other hand, on many projects the project team members are not assigned until the project schedule is already in place. The people that created the initial estimates have to make some assumptions about “average” team member performance and make estimates based on those assumptions.

In this case it is appropriate to assign work to a team member and ask them to validate whether the estimate seems reasonable. You are not looking for an estimate with a 100% confidence factor. You are just trying to validate whether the estimate for schedule, effort and budget seem reasonable. If the team member says yes, then you can hold them accountable to complete the work within those estimates.

Of course, when you first assign the work, the team member may not know enough to say whether the estimate is reasonable or not. It may take a little time and they may actually have to start working on the activity. This is fine as well. In this case, you assign the work, along with the estimated effort, budget and deadline. You then ask the team member to validate whether the work can be accomplished within these estimates. If the team member feels that the estimates are incorrect, he needs to communicate this to you AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In this case, the team member is obligated to provide a more realistic estimate. The project manager can push back to validate that the new estimate is more accurate than the old one. Some negotiation may occur. However, when the project manager and team member are in agreement, then the project manager can hold the team member accountable.

The key in this scenario is that the team member must notify the project manager that the prior deadline is unachievable as soon as the team member realizes it. It is not acceptable for the team member to wait until the original deadline is missed and then say that the estimates were off.

These approaches are the way to hold team members accountable for the work, while also being fair to them by allowing them to have input and buy-in to the estimates. Once they have this buy-in, then they can legitimately be held accountable for the work.