Corporate Exit Strategist for the Blooming Entrepreneur
Time is just a form of measurement. It’s a tool for our convenience. One of the uses for “time” is to synchronize pieces of a project: to schedule the various work products and integrate into a quality product, service or event. Inaccurate estimating skills slow down the entire team and builds resentment in those required to pick-up the slack.
This series cover three methods of charting and logging your work product estimations:
- Iterative charting to improve accuracy
- Charting for effective communications
- Charting for a streamlining process example
Today we are starting our discussion with a tip on how to use our estimating charts to streamline our process.
Using the chart for a streamlining process example:
Critically reviewing exactly who needs what, when, allows you to better streamline your schedule. For instance, if I am writing a book, I may choose to write the first draft, have it reviewed first by my editor, then my publisher, then some reviewers. I would log my estimates, impact, quality and my time accordingly.
| Tasks | Impact | Quality required | Estimated Time | Actual Time |
| Writing book | Editor needs an early draft of the book.Publisher and reviewers need something close to release quality, but doesn’t have to be perfect. | |||
| Write First Draft | Low | 3 months | 4 months | |
| Review by editor | Low | 3 months | 4 months | |
| Incorporate changes from editor | High | 3 weeks | ||
| Review by publisher | Medium | 1 month | 2 months | |
| Incorporate changes from publisher | High | 2 weeks | ||
| Review by reviewers | Medium-high | 1 month | 1 month | |
| Write Second Draft | High | 3 weeks | 2 months | |
| Release time | 13 months |
But if I structure things a little differently, and handed off in parts to the right people in parallel or continuously, the timing might look like:
| Tasks | Impact | Quality required | Estimated Time | Actual Time |
| Writing book | Editor needs early drafts as I complete them. Drafts can be rough.Publisher and reviewers need Beta Versions for their review. Pretty close to release but not perfect. | |||
| Write First Draft Part 1 | Low | 1.5 months | 2 months | |
| Review Part 1 by editor | As long as I keep supplying Editor with new material before he completes what he currently has, his pipeline is sufficiently filled. I don’t need to complete the entire book before handing off to him. | Medium | 1.5 months | 2 months |
| Incorporate changes as editor reviews (in parallel) | If he hands-off periodically as he completes, I can incorporate his changes in parallel. | High | 2 days to tie loose ends | 1 day |
| Work on Part II while editor is reviewing Part 1 | I can also be working on the second part. I don’t have to be waiting on the editor to continue writing the second part. | 0 new time | ||
| Incorporate changes to PART II as editor reviews (in parallel) | High | 2 days to tie loose ends | 1 day | |
| Review PART I and PART II by publisher and reviewers at same time | Publisher and reviewers may need the entire manuscript. But they don’t need to review in serial. They can review at the same time. | Medium | 1 month | 2 months |
| Incorporate final changes | 2 weeks | 2 weeks | ||
| Release time | 7 months |
Conclusion:
Keeping the below 5 things when estimating helps with communication, streamlining tasks, and bottlenecks. If can also give you insight into critical path analysis and parallel processing. (More on critical path analysis and parallel processing in future articles).
The more you practice these things, the better you will get. These tools are for you to use. Please feel free to modify the templates to your individual needs.
And let me know what you have tried and have incorporated in your routines.
