what to do

[chef]

Ok,

I am in the early stages of a new project and face a big problem. There is a period of 5 days in the project plan that is spent reviewing and approving the design documents that I produce before the implementation phase can begin.

Obviously I wouldn't want to have this time as unbillable and in reality I will actually be making initial progress on the build phase of the system (as I'm confident the design documents will be approved with at most only the briefest of changes), however, client co have stated that the design doc is a milestone and therefore build phase cannot begin until this is signed off.

So, what creative realistic billable suggestions can the panel come up with to fill this possible 5 day non-billabe void within the timeplan?

[Pondlife]

Ok,

I am in the early stages of a new project and face a big problem. There is a period of 5 days in the project plan that is spent reviewing and approving the design documents that I produce before the implementation phase can begin.

snip

So, what creative realistic billable suggestions can the panel come up with to fill this possible 5 day non-billabe void within the timeplan?

Don't you need to be involved in the review process since it's your doc.

I don't mean you sign it off (obv) but you need to be able to provide any additional info, explanations or rework that's required, no?

[MarillionFan]

Ok,

I am in the early stages of a new project and face a big problem. There is a period of 5 days in the project plan that is spent reviewing and approving the design documents that I produce before the implementation phase can begin.

Obviously I wouldn't want to have this time as unbillable and in reality I will actually be making initial progress on the build phase of the system (as I'm confident the design documents will be approved with at most only the briefest of changes), however, client co have stated that the design doc is a milestone and therefore build phase cannot begin until this is signed off.

So, what creative realistic billable suggestions can the panel come up with to fill this possible 5 day non-billabe void within the timeplan?

Start work on the second phase and retrospectively bill for the time if approved. If not approved you wasted 5 days.

(To be fair, the opposite just happened to me. Client insisted that they needed some new functionality outside of the core provided. I quoted 8k for the work on a tight timeline. They said they wanted it, so approval was a formality. I gave the go-ahead to an external contractor to start, five days in their PM let slip that they weren't going to pay. Within 5 minutes I'd pulled the work and put the contractor on to something else. BI director now wants to know why he owes some contractor £2500 for a piece of work that hasn't been paid for )

[doodab]

Send them a bill composed of several hundreds of small individual items. See if you can slip some fanciful ones in there. I reckon that making a salmon and cucumber sandwich could be broken down into at least a dozen separate billable items.

Remove butter from fridge
Spread butter on bread
Cucumber selection
Cucumber washing
Cucumber slicing

etc

[chef]

Start work on the second phase and retrospectively bill for the time if approved. If not approved you wasted 5 days.

That's what I will do in reality, but for the purposes of the Project plan I have x number of days assigned to work on the build phase (already very generous in time allocated) and they begin from when the docs are approved, so I have 5 days sat around waiting which I want to fill with a suitable task that can be included within the project plan (and therefore inlcuded in the time/materials client expectations)

If I state that I started work on the project 5 days earlier then they will expect me to complete 5 days earlier and that part of the project really can't be extended any further (i.e by this missing 5 days) given the already ridiculously generous timescales given to build (i.e 3x what I would say is a generous build timescale).

[Mich the Tester]

Hold 'workshops' and 'interactive sessions' with 'key stakeholders'; that way they'll order lots of changes so you can then redesign and bill them for more work.

[MarillionFan]

That's what I will do in reality, but for the purposes of the Project plan I have x number of days assigned to work on the build phase (already very generous in time allocated) and they begin from when the docs are approved, so I have 5 days sat around waiting which I want to fill with a suitable task that can be included within the project plan (and therefore inlcuded in the time/materials client expectations)

If I state that I started work on the project 5 days earlier then they will expect me to complete 5 days earlier and that part of the project really can't be extended any further (i.e by this missing 5 days) given the already ridiculously generous timescales given to build (i.e 3x what I would say is a generous build timescale).

So sounds like you can get ahead of schedule and mooch off every now and then to take advantage of any sunny spells. Sorted.

[Arturo Bassick]

Are you being paid hourly or by delivery?

Just take the holiday.

[chef]

Hold 'workshops' and 'interactive sessions' with 'key stakeholders'; that way they'll order lots of changes so you can then redesign and bill them for more work.

I'm right in the middle of a weeks worth of Workshops and Interactive Sessions with the Key Stakeholders, where all risks & outstanding issues are flagged and made Accountable, from which the Design Documents will be produced.

As a result of said workshops all were in agreement to what equates to an 80% increase in original project plan length based upon previous experience, prudence, best practice and "keeping it simple".

After 9 months self imposed bench time I forgot how by simply using all the cliche buzz words managers all look very happy and sign off on anything.

<Chef in 'fill yer boots' mode>

[chef]

Are you being paid hourly or by delivery?

Just take the holiday.

I'm on a daily rate and although I would love to take the holiday, I've just had 9 months self imposed "holiday" and only intend to work this project before taking a similar length holiday next year so I might aswell try and fit in 5 days of work if possible