Jackie said:
Hi John
thanks for your reply - I understand what you mean - what I am trying to
achieve is precisely a high level concept that will be scoped out properly
eventually. The tasks I have and the related durations have been provided by
the workstream technical leads, its just that we dont have yet working
details. You say that the cost information is automatically available in the
Cost field. Please can you expand a bit on this and how to run a report to
show the costs related.
Many thanks again
J
Jackie,
In your original post when you said you had rate for the resources I
assumed that information was entered into the Std Rate field on the
Resource Sheet - perhaps a bad assumption on my part. If your resources
are entered onto the Resource Sheet along with their pay rates and those
resources are then assigned to the various tasks, then the standard Cost
field will show all calculated costs for the project.
With regard to your concept plan. If the information your received from
task performers (workstream technical leads) consists only of task
descriptions and estimated duration, it won't help to build a cost
model. Duration is strictly the time during which tasks are performed.
The real parameter of interest is the estimated effort, that is, how
much work will be required by one or more resources to accomplish each
task. For example, you might have 1 week to write a report but the
actual effort to write it may only be 20 hours. The duration is one
week, the work effort is 20 hours. If a single resource works full time
on a task, then the duration and work will be the same.
So, for your concept plan, you need to do a few things. First, enter
your resource data, names and pay rate, unto the Resource Sheet. Note
that for conceptual plans, you probably want to use generic resources
(i.e. engineers, accountants, etc. instead of Joe Smith, Judy Watson,
etc.). Second, if the data you have from the performs is not effort
based (i.e. estimated work to perform), then you need to query them
again and get that data. As I said in my previous response, one good
source for that type of information is historical actuals from previous
similar projects. Third, after you have the work estimates, you need to
assign resources to each of your conceptual tasks. At that point you
will have completely costed conceptual planning packages. I know you
said you were only asked to develop the labor cost for the plan but if
there will be significant material cost, the plan, concept or not, won't
be worth much when it comes to describing what the complete project will
cost. Finally, when you get the contract or are ready to go ahead with
the conceptual plan, you must then get with the performers again and
expand the planning packages into detail tasks. At that time you can
refine the plan as necessary.
Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
