Estimating Project Duration

A PM asks. "Why should I spend a lot of time working with the team on estimates when the sponsor always cuts the estimates anyway?"

There are several ways to handle that situation. That kind of sponsor decision-making always goes along with high project failure rates. Project teams may slap together some piece of crap by the deadline the executive set. But then they spend 6 months cleaning up the crap. I promise you the executive is sick of failure too. The exec may even be more worried about the failures then you are.

In that very typical situation, it can be effective to tell the executive something like, "We're getting nowhere setting these impossible due dates that have no basis in fact. The team has no commitment to them and knows they are impossible. So on every project, the whole team knows we are going to fail before we start. Let's try managing a project with realistic dates that we can hit."

Anybody have other ideas on handling this situation?

Are all project managers like this?

A professional engineer who works on projects full time wrote in and asked:

I haven't been working on project very long but every project manager I have worked for is a clown. Here's what they do. They call you in and tell you how important the new project is and how the big bosses are "really watching this project."

I guess they think that I'll be really impressed by this talk about the importance of the project. I was the first time, but not since.

Then they tell you when your task has to be done, usually even before they tell you what you have to do. Next the describe all the bad things that will happen to you if you're late.

Then they explain what you have to do. But its vague with no specifics on the deliverables so you know they'll change it every week.

Are all Project managers like this?

Best Regards,

Dick Billows PMP, GCA
4PM.com