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When you estimate for project management i.e PM's role time, do you take a certain % of the total estimate? Can you provide me the process or procedure used in general and how accurate it is?

jmort253
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Sreedhar Nadadur
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3 Answers3

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First, there is no such thing as an accurate estimate. Second, there is a difference between an estimate, which should always be a range, and your planning value, which the number in the range that represents what you are shooting for.

When I think of the PM role, I typically do not look at just the role of project manager but all project management roles, which includes the various controls like quality surveillance, risk management, procurement, cost and schedule controls, etc. You can imagine on a small project, a single individual would assume all those roles where, in a large project, you would have a team of individuals, many of whom with specific expertise like a master scheduler or Earned Value.

Project management is largely service oriented. There are few discreet work packages that fall under this area; mostly, you provide services to handle the demand. Therefore, typical techniques to arrive at the appropriate sizing levels you would use in the other areas of the project are not appropriate. This area is a supply and demand question.

I think in most industries, the range for PM on projects are known. This is a belief of mine so I cannot support that with references. In the IT area, which is where I work, it is known that the PM area typically calls for 8% to 16% of the total effort. There is a bit of variance based on where you might read this but Gartner and Standish both have published their opinions on this matter.

Where you might fall in this range is a huge depends. There are ton of drivers: your risk appetite, your experience on a given project or customer, type of contract, etc. Your mileage will vary. What works for one project may kill you the next.

David Espina
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The best approach is to make your estimate based on experience from past, similar projects. The projects being similar in terms of scale, complexity, oversight, etc to the project you are estimating is key.

For example, if in your experience you can comfortably manage 3 concurrent projects of a similar level of complexity and oversight as the project that you are estimating for, your level of effort would be roughly 25% (assume 3 projects * 25% each gives 75% of your workload, the last 25% covers non-project related effort like mentoring, administrative effort, etc etc).

Doug B
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Uhm, ask a PM how much time they think they would need to manage the project? Then use that value and add more or less time if it shows otherwise. Not rocket science and no formulas needed.

Brett Maytom PST
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