Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

The two resources I have selected that would be useful in estimating the costs, effort, and/or activity durations associated with ID projects are listed below.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/5-steps-to-prepare-your-project-budget-HA001141182.aspx

The site gives 5 Steps to Prepare Your Project. The budgeting plan includes setting pay rates, entering per-use costs, entering fixed costs, setting types of tasks, and assigning resources.  I would use the information and enter per use cost and also fixed cost because that always plays a role in preparing the budget.  I also enjoyed the chart description listed below.

If a task's cost is based on:	And you want approximate costs, do this:	Or you want detailed costs, do this:
Hours worked or amount of material used	Specify rates for all work resources and material resources. Assign resources to tasks. Track hours worked or percent complete.	Specify rates for all resources/materials. Assign resources to tasks. Track hours worked.
A set fee for a task	Specify fees for tasks. Assign resources to tasks only if you have tracking needs beyond cost tracking.	Specify fees for tasks. Assign resources to tasks. Track hours worked or percent complete.
A set fee for use of a resource	Specify per-use costs for resources. Assign resources to summary tasks or subtasks. Track hours worked or percent complete.	Specify per-use costs for resources. Assign resources to tasks. Track hours worked or percent complete.

http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm


Although this site reiterated what most sites state about planning a project, I focused on the information pertaining to communicating your plan to the project team.  The project team is very important because they are assisting as well.  You are not working the project alone, and if you were you would not have a high percentage for success. 




References

Microsoft Project. (2003). 5 steps to prepare your project budget. Retrieved from

       http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/5-steps-to-prepare-your-project-budget-

      HA001141182.aspx


Rosenhead, R. (2010). Project Management. Retrieved November 27, 2013, from

      http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm

Communicating Effectively

Formal and informal communication.  The way you deliver a message is key to how the message is received.  As a project manager a lot of your time is to make sure everyone is on the same page and happy.  They also focus on timeframes and making sure all the pieces fit from start to finish.  90% of the communication is not in your words, for example the timeframe you submit information, how focused you are on detail.  You must be really clear in your communication to everyone including the stakeholders.  Emails and public meetings is a good way to keep everyone updated.  Communication strategies vary and never remains the same for everyone.  Someone mentions they were uncomfortable with a formal style of operating projects.  Sensing the style of the organization is very important because it may be different than what you are accustomed to and may take some time to evaluate.  Addressing communication should allow you to ask for advice in the organization, getting the key players together to discuss the communication strategies are also a good idea so that you are on the same page, probe your group for traps you could encounter, document and refine the information you gathered and present to the organization to ensure everyone agrees with your communication strategy.  Three forms of communication are email, voicemail, and face-to-face.  The messages were pretty much the same to me but for some can be misinterpreted.  The email message can be misread because we are reading from a paper document and there is not expression involved, the person reading the message can interpret the message in a good or bad way.  Voicemail went well because you can hear the tone in her voice when she is relaying the message, and the face-to face is also great because you not only get the tone of voice but you can also see their facial expressions and can completely interpret the message as a whole.  Depending on the personality type people may interpret the massage in many ways.  Therefore if it is an extremely important message it should be displayed face-to face.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learning from a Project

I can recall in the past when I was trying to start my business and I had plenty to do.  One part of my  project was to create a website to utilize for my customer because we live in the technology age.  At  the start of the project I assumed everything was great and did not realize how much research and  effort it would take to create a successful website for my customers.  I created my website and  implemented the website live before I launched my business officially. I had a home page,  information about the business, pictures, and general information listed in text form on the site. Once  I launched the site I had many questions on how to do certain things, and also requested additional  information after viewing the site and this made me aware that this was not a success and something  additional was needed.  After reviewing additional factors and customer feedback I went in to make  changes.  First the site was a little boring because the main factors were presented in text form only.   I went in and included many visuals such as bright fun pictures that went with my company theme.  I  included audio aspects on the site such as recordings that maintained a lively tome of voice  explaining certain aspects.  I also included links on the site that led to additional information such as  my policy and procedures as well, and I included a contact page so that anyone could reach out to me  via the site as well.  I added a page where customers could make payments via credit card or paypal.   I decided to make the site a little more upbeat and detailed as well.  After the additional changes to  the site I received less questions on what additional services I offered, costs, etc. and more contacts  just asking if they could tour and possible enroll.  I didn't realize that my website was an additional  aspect that could have such a massive impact on business success,