Submitted by mnannini on
in
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Dear all,
I was listening to the HLPM podcast and more specifically part 4 about deadlines and too long tasks.
For those tasks that are more than a week, should a PM assign the task of breaking up his long tasks into shorter ones to accountable direct or is it a PM's job ?
Thanks
Matthieu
Do you want someone telling you how to do your job?
It is the direct's role to find the best way to do the job correctly and on time. Everyone knows that breaking large tasks into small pieces is the best way to go.
*RNTT
Products, Interfaces, Resources and Stage Boundaries
The guidance I normally follow for dividing up tasks is to break them up on:
As a PM you're concerned that a product is delivered on time, to cost and to the required quality. The details of how that happens is down to the team who have the responsibility for delivery. The manager of that team would probably have their own project plan that goes into the detailed breakdown of the task. You, as PM, may check that such a plan (or something functionally equivalent) exists and matches the timescales of your plan (your high level plan may be based on estimates, estimators have been known to get things wrong) but you don't need to go into the detail. Similarly you need to know that the, say, "Server procure, build and configure" task is 60% complete but not that the tin and spinning rust has been delivered and they have attached the storage array, installed the OS and are now waiting for the RAID array to build before they can install and partch the database software and set up the databases before they can install the application software and that if the database install and patch isn't started by 16:00 Fred (to whom it is currently assigned) will have gone on leave for 2 weeks so Sheila will be doing it instead.
Stephen
--
Skype: stephenbooth_uk | DiSC: 6137
"Start with the customer and work backwards, not with the tools and work forwards" - James Womack
Very useful post Stephen
Very useful post Stephen ;)
Kind Regards
Mads Sorensen
Disc 4536