2 management - School of International Business and ...

Wolfgang Cronenbroeck
– Contents of the work packet / project section:
– Work packet responsibility
– Expected outcomes
– Dependencies and interfaces to other components
– Scheduling
– Budgeting
Effort estimate
Every work packet at the lowest level (Fig. 16, level 2) of the project breakdown can be divided
into further processes for a better estimate of the effort. These procedures should be constructed
in such a way that they do not exceed 10 person-days per step, and which can be, as much as
possible, worked on by one employee. Several technical processes that belong together form a
work packet.
Effort in person-days is estimated for every process. The efforts for the parent structures arise
from the classification in accordance with the project breakdown and summation. The estimated
effort should provide a basis to capture the cost of a project. An estimate on the basis of "manage-
able" units (e.g. processes) is generally more accurate than an estimate for the overall project.
It is difficult in practice for many project staff to estimate the effort of a process. The project man-
ager must encourage the project employees to give even inexact estimates and to correct them
with his additional know-how.
Estimates of effort are generally made using the following methods:
– Analogy methods
With known and assured key figures, the effort for similar tasks is estimated by using
analogies (for a module test, a qualified employee needs 2 person-days; for three similar
module tests, then 6 person-days are needed).
– Expert estimation:
By querying experts, one can try to obtain reliable effort estimates.
– Own estimates:
The project manager divides the work content to a degree at which he can trust his own
estimate (see Fig. 19), and then aggregates the section efforts contained to form a total effort.
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