【正文】
mate entire projects. With their large databases of actual project experience, these tools can give you a spectrum of possible schedule and staff allocation options. They’ll also help you stay out of the impossible region, binations of product size, team size, and schedule where no known project has been successful. A good tool to try is Estimate Pro from the Software Productivity Centre ().Tip 16: Respect the learning curve. If you’re trying new processes, tools, or technologies for the first time on this project, recognize that you will pay a price in terms of a shortterm productivity loss. Don’t expect to get the fabulous benefits of new software engineering approaches on the first try, so build extra time into the schedule to account for the inevitable learning curve.Tip 17: Plan contingency buffers. Things never go precisely as you plan on a project, so your budget and schedule should include some contingency buffers at the end of major phases to acmodate the unforeseen. Unfortunately, your manager or customer may view these buffers as padding, rather than the sensible acknowledgement of reality that they are. Point to unpleasant surprises on previous projects as a rationale for your foresight.Tracking Your ProgressTip 18: Record actuals and estimates. If you don’t record the actual effort or time spent on each task and pare them to your estimates, you’ll never improve your estimating approach. Your estimates will forever remain guesses.Tip 19: Count tasks as plete only when they’re 100% plete. One benefit of using inchpebbles for task planning is that you can classify each small task as either done or not done, which is more realistic than trying to estimate what percent of a large task is plete at any time. Don’t let people round up their task pletion status。 use explicit criteria to tell whether a step truly is pleted.Tip 20: Track project status openly and honestly. Create a climate in which team members feel safe reporting project status accurately. Strive to run the project from a foundation of accurate, databased facts, rather than from the misleading optimism that sometimes arises from fear of reporting bad news. Use project status information to take corrective actions when necessary and to celebrate when you can.These tips won’t guarantee success, but they will help you get a solid handle on your project and ensure that you’re doing all you can to make it succeed in a crazy world.