A couple of weeks ago, I completed
a behemoth $56 million dollar cost estimate that involved capturing costs from
this year through 2020. The client
wanted us to include in our estimate costs that would be “incremental” to the
existing annual budget as a result of the increase in scope that they had
specified. The objectives of this cost estimate was to provide a resource that
could be used for planning and budgeting, would enable the organization to manage
its investment portfolio, allocate and or obtain additional funding as needed
to fund the project or determine if they needed to reduce scope. The project
was a success and the estimate and accompanying resources were very well
received by the client. However, I must say I was very relieved when the client
was pleased as the visibility of this project extended from my level up to the Presidents
of both organizations.
There
were several processes that made this project go smoothly in spite of its size
and complexity. The first was a joint
planning session for the project by our leadership team and the client. Both organizations had program, finance and
senior management at the table which was critical. We agreed upon the strategy,
timeline, cost template and deliverables that would accompany the cost template. This planning session enabled everyone to
walk away with a common understanding. Additionally, we had weekly touch base
calls to vet any additional questions, clarify additional inputs, and obtain
sign off on our assumptions that we were using for the project (Greer, 2010). Following this planning session, I coordinated a large internal kick-off session with all key managers and the worker-bees from
each area that would be providing costs. This internal kick-off helped set the
stage of why the estimate was important and how it could help secure their jobs
through 2020. The carrot of confirming additional work and job security was one
that motivated many to be timely in their deliverables needed for the estimate.
We had several artifacts such as a project timeline with milestone charts, cost
templates, definitions, FAQ’s and assumption documents that were distributed at
the kickoff meeting. Our team of four
that worked on coordinating the project has a good chemistry and trust of each
other which helped during the crunch time and brought the project to the finish
line. Lastly, leadership was key. I had
my Senior VP attend the kick-off session and demonstrate his support of the
project and emphasize the importance of it. When we delivered the cost estimate we
followed the delivery by a four hour face to face meeting to walk senior leadership
through estimate and answer questions that they had. The face to face final meeting provided the
opportunity to confirm what we delivered met their needs and expectations and
answer questions and review the resources so everyone had common understanding
of the breadth and scope of what we delivered.
An area
that was most challenging was the aggressive timeline of the project. The
project kick-off was June 15 and final cost estimate was due to the client on
September 30th. From June
through early July the majority of the team was maxed out with deliverables for
the operational part of the project then July 4th hit. In earnest between summer schedules and other
workloads many unfortunately did not deliver their inputs until September which
caused an additional burden on my finance colleague and my team members working
on the estimate. We had to work several weekends and nights
because others did not adhere to the project schedule. Because our organization is a matrix structure
is was challenging to get those who
missed the deadline to deliver as I have no authority over them and I had to
continue to chase until they provided what was needed which took way too much
effort on my part. This window was selected for the project as it was suppose
to be our quieter time but this was not the case. In the future I would of utilized a better
work break down process and reporting of tasks, built more time in the schedule
to review the inputs received from each area and time for it iterations. Another challenge was each area had to provide
their estimate back to me in a very complicated excel template that was hard to
navigate and input. We were tied to this template as that was what was agreed
upon but when we went to actually input information found it time-intensive to
use. For future estimates the feedback
was we need to create a new template to capture costs and make it easier and
faster to use.
Upon
reflection of this project it was deemed truely a success. For the future and next go
around I need to be more supportive of my internal stakeholders, add more time
to the project schedule and make the tasks easier and less burdensome for everyone involved.
-Michelle Cosner
References
