How can the product manager communicate with engineers about the time schedule?

Source: Internet
Author: User
For example, if you need to develop something, the engineer will say: 30 days ask why 30 days will tell you that the workload is huge. How can I determine whether it really takes 30 days? If you (not professional) feel that you do not need to communicate with engineers? For example, if you need to develop something, the engineer will say: 30 days
Ask why 30 days will tell you that the workload is heavy.
How can I determine whether it really takes 30 days? If you (not professional) feel that you do not need to communicate with engineers? Reply content: Thank you for your invitation.

Generally, if you leave engineers accountable for what they say, you can get a responsible answer.

Frankly speaking, when I see this problem, it may be my malicious inference. I always feel that there is a kind of subconscious in my heart that regards myself and my engineers as the relationship between upstream and downstream, consider the engineer's estimation of the construction period as a commitment to himself. "You can get it in 30 days ." "No, I will be there in 15 days ." This is not communication, but negotiation on the opposite side. The Tao is already wrong. what is the purpose of pursuing the skill?

It is difficult to accurately estimate the construction period, which is the same as that of the product. I have seen some methods or tools that can solve these two problems,:
(1) they bring additional costs and are often too big to be accepted
(2) more importantly, they are effective in case of wrangling and expire in case of project promotion

If the engineer gives an estimate of the normal construction period, it is likely that the project cannot be completed on schedule. If you cannot finish the task on schedule, you may find trouble. then, he will give enough time to protect himself. this is natural.

The real and effective way is to allow communication between each other, which will never be evidence of future complaints. In this way, we can obtain the most authentic information and use it as a correct judgment. Naturally, it still cannot be accurate, but the internet itself is full of uncertainty, which is the charm of it. the uncertainty of the construction period is a small part of this "big uncertainty, if this cannot be done, we will be the Mao product manager. I have answered a similar question. link to the original article: how can the product manager reasonably estimate the project development time?
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For product managers, the three most important factors for accurately estimating the project development time are experience, professionalism, and communication.
There is nothing more accurate than experience in estimating the project cycle. For example, you used a similar project for a month. The project was still of the same scale, the same quality requirement, and the same group of engineers (at least at the same level ), this project will take about one month.
Why is it so dependent on experience? In addition to the time for engineers to write code designers to draw pictures, there are many other things that will delay the project cycle: for example, if you compete for the time required, the server upload speed is slow, the boss changes the rework time, the time required to modify the bug, and the workstation crashes and the disk is not saved time, etc, it is difficult to use formulas to calculate the time. we can only estimate the time based on experience. Therefore, the more your project is, the more accurate the time estimation will be.
Second, we will use a professional. Although it is said that there is a lot of time that cannot be calculated by formulas, and experience is required, there is still a part of the working time (and the proportion is not small) that can be calculated by the "formula. If you want to master this "formula", you must master the corresponding professional knowledge. This major is not the product manager Major, but the relevant link major. For example, it takes some time for a front-end engineer to cut a pure static page and add it to a js special effect, the js effect is a floating layer or Ajax's drag time is also different, you need to understand how long these different needs will take to deal, is there a way to shorten the time and meet the requirements (although you do not need to know the details of the method ). This is also necessary for you to calculate the project time.
The last step is communication. if you do not know the first two items, there is no foundation for communication: In your eyes, engineers charge a lot of money, and in the eyes of engineers, you may think differently. You can use communication skills to persuade engineers to complete the project at a reasonable time. A more radical programmer is optimistic about the estimated time to show his strength. Basically, he needs to multiply the time by 3, which is the final time when he can go online.

Experienced programmers will estimate a relatively safe time to cope with the difficult technical problems and the need to add changes during development, and can also solve the problem after work. To avoid a serious blow to morale.

Therefore, period estimation is related to the developer's personality and experience, and cannot be generalized. This requires a tacit understanding with the development team for a long term.

The man-hours evaluated in the early days were like some people who said, "This is the final version requirement and will never be changed ."
Is not reliable.

The only thing that can be determined is that you must communicate with each other on a daily basis, reevaluate the remaining workload at least once every week, correct the schedule or change the launch time.

The biggest time thief is to sharpen the skin. the most useful thing to cherish the time is to start work as soon as possible. code wins arguments, the essence of project time management lies in daily communication and continuous evaluation.
  1. Split large tasks into small tasks for separate evaluation.
  2. Organize several engineers to evaluate at the same time and take the average value.
  3. It should be safer to set aside 1/3 margin for the last time.
[Introduction]
For a product project, the standard process generally involves market research and analysis, demand analysis and design, technical analysis and design, code development, testing, acceptance launch, O & M, and other processes. According to the cmme R & D process, there are six phases: Project Initiation, demand, design, coding, testing, and release.
Where:
Project Initiation and demand phase, Mainly Product ManagerWork;
Design phaseIt can be divided into two aspects: Uidesign, Which is mainly UI designer and product managerOn the other hand Technical Design, Which is mainly Technical staff(Architects, project managers, or direct developers );
Encoding phase, Mainly Technical staffWork;
Test phase, Mainly TesterWork;
Acceptance release phase, Mainly Product Manager.
In the above six stages, each stage has the division of work of the project team members. Of course, product managers and project managers run through the entire project process (in some companies, project managers and product managers share the same role ).
Although Internet products are short, fast, and iterative, the construction period is relatively short, but the overall project also needs to go through the above stages.

[Analysis]
When a product manager is working on a product project, there are usually two types of duration evaluation:
1. The first type is the existing time period, which can only be evaluated by time reverse method. For example, it may take two weeks to launch an emergency product based on market or Operation Feedback. The product project objectives are clear and only two weeks in total, including requirement analysis, definition, and design, go to technical design, coding development, test and acceptance, and release the product. In fact, the project team members have no choice but to complete the task on schedule within the current time period. In this case, what the product manager has to do is to weigh the time ratio of each stage and communicate with the project team members. all of us are faced with a situation where time is tight and tasks are large. we can only work overtime, no one can hold back when the project is completed on schedule (this is the case that the project time is clear and cannot be changed, that is, the dead command of the leadership, and the project team members must finish the task on schedule. If there are still changes, the product manager should win reasonable time and resources for the project team members ).

2. The second type is that there are no dead commands. you can evaluate the project duration and the working time of each stage according to the normal R & D process. In this case, the corresponding members of each stage should evaluate the reasonable time for their work in the corresponding stage (of course, this is evaluated on the premise that the demand has been finalized ). What the product manager should do is to reasonably assess the time ratio of each stage and the overall coordination of the project schedule. In this case, each member is responsible for his/her evaluation work time and must complete his/her work within the time of his/her evaluation. if a stage has been postponed, A chain reaction may occur, and the whole project may be postponed, which is generally not allowed. During the entire process, the product manager and project manager should monitor and control the entire project progress.

[Method]
Regardless of the above situations, the product manager should trust the time (not only the technical personnel, but also the evaluation time of each member) of the technical personnel ). What the product manager needs to do is to collect the evaluation time of all members and compare it with the expected project duration. If this is the best result as expected, it is only possible to proceed according to the evaluation time; if it does not meet expectations (usually not as expected), it is necessary to weigh the time ratio of each stage, at the same time, coordinate again. To achieve this, the product manager should be based on the previous project experience, and the other should be based on the specific project situation.
Timely communication is necessary and basic to promote the progress of the project. this is not only required by the product manager, but also by project team members.
In the project, you are not afraid of unexpected or unexpected situations. if you are afraid of problems, you are afraid to cover your own hands and wait until others find out before communication. If someone else does not ask you, they will not be able to beat or say anything about it. whether it's a product dog or a programmer, it will be unqualified. let alone anything else, or you should reflect on it yourself. First, trust your engineers. Second, there should be clear time expectations for this project.

All successful cooperation is based on mutual trust. Building on this trust, R & D trusts you, and the demand is reliable and effective. you believe that R & D will work hard for the project. without this premise, cooperation will not be pleasant.

When submitting a request, pm needs to ask what is the acceptable time baseline. why? Then, communicate with you as needed. At this time, sometimes some persuasion skills are needed: to describe the blueprint, expectations of the project, and the reasons for requiring time points, if there is a premise for each other at the first point, in addition, it may not be too difficult.

Be sure to clarify the requirements during communication so that everyone can understand them. Second, if it is a big project, such as a 30-day project, please call all the members of the project and split them together. Split this large project into small demand points (user stories), each small demand point, what needs to be done, how long each job will take, and what tasks are completed every day, list tables and create a project progress Wall. it is very reliable for everyone to follow the schedule.

Finally, the pm should gradually accumulate experience in the actual project. Pm with technical background will be better. If you do not have one, please contact R & D engineers. what steps need to be completed for this project and how long each step will take. Ask the reason for unexpected length or short length. This accumulation will be more reliable! Either, learn and make yourself a "knowledgeable" person, and evaluate it again;
Or trust programmers;
You can either open the 30-day evaluation programmer, or change the 15-day evaluation programmer. if the evaluation fails, you will suffer the consequences. We use Scrum. that's right. it's the Scrum that everyone is clamoring for, and some people may even scold it. After the answer, you will find that the problem does not match the Po.

========================================================== ====================================
We are not doing well now, but there are several points that may be worth your reference.
1. Business consensus
An agreement here refers to an agreement on the last thing to be delivered, what the product looks like, and what resources it needs. It is to constantly discuss with each other, but it is only at the business layer that provides user scenarios, but do not deduct technical details as far as possible.
2. trust the team in conclusion
Fully trust your team and make the team fully trust you.
It is unknown to let professional people do professional things. The estimation of unknown things is important for R & D personnel's skills, experience, and professionalism. However, I have a little understanding of how Team members estimate the time, which is more useful than how one person deducts his or her estimation. First, trust your estimated time.
3. continuous optimization
It is unrealistic to estimate the time at a time. After learning about their estimation methods, we can start several cycles to fully trust everyone's estimated time, and then record it so that everyone can see whether their efficiency is improved or reduced, those who want to work for the officers will not sharpen their employees, and do not want them to roll back the score early. Believe me, the engineer said it would take 30 days to complete

Usually it takes 60 days.

Therefore, lz should not be suspicious if others are deliberately lazy, or think about what to do if it is not completed in 30 days. do not want to be a product manager's architect or not a good programmer ......

The purpose of the answer is that the society has already entered the era of comprehensive division of labor, and it is no longer possible for medium-sized or higher Projects/products to be completed by one's own efforts, at the same time, people with a variety of skills (product + architecture or architecture + development or development + testing) are eager for most companies in proportion.

In a variety of workload estimation methods, either the empirical estimation of "Earth cannot be Earth" or the FPA in cmme are good estimation methods under the conditions applicable to the organization. However, in most small and medium-sized enterprises, there are several reasons for such problems:
1. lack of unified Estimation method/Standard: If the organization confirms that it uses experience for estimation, the accuracy of the workload depends on the ability and attitude of the person to estimate (and may be in a mood ); therefore, I personally suggest implementing a relatively objective FPA method in the organization, but this method needs to be recognized by the organization and has a corresponding cost;
2. lack of effective Supervision/reflection mechanism: In many organizations, it is impossible to reflect on why the project is postponed, analyze the reasons and improve it. The Daily Project R & D monitoring cannot be well implemented. In the long run, project extension will become a habit;
3. lack of commitment Respect: Like personal credit, many people only regard a plan as a plan, rather than a plan as a commitment. it is true that such a requirement is a bit high, but it is postponed for many times, it will inevitably lead to distrust of you by others.

PS. everyone wants to keep strict requirements on others, but it is often the most difficult to keep strict requirements on themselves.

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