Event based PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Question

Hey fellas!

Where i am working we have a number of contractor programmers. We handle the requirements and the project management of our products.

I have been trying using various project timing and estimations techniques but cant get the hang of it yet. I have read Joel's evidence based scheduling and i was wondering if there's anything out there that can help me apply that theory? not looking for complex software but perhaps something in excel?

Any help will be appreciated

Andreas

Answer 1

Evidence based scheduling estimates time based on historic data. It more/less works like this:

• you create case with estimated time needed to complete
• when you complete case, you enter time you really spent to complete case
• based on time statistics and some magic (see Joel's post on EBS), FogBugz estimates how much chance there is to complete remaining open cases in time you entered as "Estimated".

FogBugz has free edition, so you can try to play with it.

You should also check Pivotal Tracker. It has different system of estimation. Maybe it will better suit your needs. It's free and it has full demo project where you can learn some things about project management.

Answer 2

You may also want to check out the Commitment-Based PM methodology: http://www.pmisv.org/cde.cfm?event=310563

We're actually working on a personal productivity tool supporting similar concepts and allowing de-centralized PM vie email. If you're interested, let me know, I'll post a link here.

Answer 3

I teach the workshop that Alexey refers to and will be happy to discuss the approach if you are not able to attend the workshop.