Click here to see a sample Project Management Spreadsheet that I filled in with the estimates for “High Holiday Ushers” subtasks that appear in Chapter 8 of Growth through Governance.  You may copy and use the sheet for yourself, but please respect the open-source license: you may not sell it, and the attribution with my e-mail address must stay intact.

• Click here to access a blank Project Management Spreadsheet for your use in other projects.
• Click here to see the same Project Management Spreadsheet being used for tracking, according to the sample results mentioned in Chapter 8 of my book.
• Click here if you’d like more detail on how the whole thing works.

By the way, I realize the estimates on the sheet are not exactly what they are in the book in Figure 8 on page 216, although I think the subtask estimates are the same as those in Figure 9 on page 217.  I’m not surprised that happened.  I must have played around with the numbers a little bit after sending in Figure 8.  In any case, our whole point is that the precision doesn’t matter a whole lot.  We’re already tremendously more precise than we would be with a one-point estimate, which, as I mention in Growth through Governance (see p. 218 at the top), would have put us at 24 hours instead of 33 or 34.  We’re interested in getting the ballpark right.  Slightly different subtask estimates would result in slightly different project estimates, too, and those differences are just matters of opinion.  You’ll be fine if you’re anywhere in the ballpark of the low 30s of hours for this small project, and not in the low 20s.  If you want to try for greater precision in project estimates, see Chapter 10 of the book.

This may be a lot, so please feel free to ask any questions by leaving a reply below!