Project Management Foundations
with Bonnie Biafore
Hospital Scheduling Project
Choose the Best Estimate Solution
You add the information provided by the vendors to a spreadsheet (see Bestestimate Solution.pdf).
Since vendor 3’s system does not provide much built-in functionality or customization, you suspect that the
system won’t meet the COO’s requirements for scheduling. Because of that, you decide to use only the two
higher-end systems in your estimate.
First, you calculate the average value for the typical duration and cost for vendor 1 and vendor 2. The aver-
age duration for a typical implementation is 10.5 months. The average cost for a typical implementation is
$825,000.
Next, you calculate the average value for the extensive customization duration and cost for vendor 1 and
vendor 2. The average duration is 12.5 months, and the average cost is $1,050,000.
The next step is to calculate the duration halfway between the typical and worst-case average values. This
provides an 86% probability of delivering at or below these values. The duration is 11.5 months and the cost
is $937,500.
Because the grants have a hard expiration deadline, you decide to increase your estimated duration to
12 months. You also decide to round the cost to $950,000. These final estimates give you 1.5 months and
$125,000 that you can use for contingency.
Project Management Foundations with Bonnie Biafore 1 of 1