Terms/Definitions
What refers to changes, continuous or uncontrolled growth in a project's scope at any project after the project begins?
Scope Creep
What are the 2 types of retainer offerings that we sell? Name the product names.
Annual & On-Demand.
Reminder: Annual is a yearly contract commitment, where an On-Demand is a month to month commitment after the first 3 months.
What are the 2 types of burn?
Burn-to-date & Projected Burn
Reminder: We need to be reporting both of these metrics to our clients weekly or biweekly.
Take the larger of planned hours vs actual hours
How do you update your Project End Dates?
THIS: Update your Project Plan.
THAT: Update your Program Level Estimated End Date.
THIS!!!
Update your Project Plan.
Reminder: Project End dates pull from the last task date in your project plan. So if you project plan is fully updated then your program level will be updated.
Don't land on my list ;)
What is the document called where you can find all client information, billing details?
Client Workbook
Meeting with them bi-weekly.
They have a retainer that is smaller than 80hrs per month.
When are we obligated to share hours over percentages?
When we are contractually obligated
What is the formula for calculating value?
Hours Sold - Billable Hours = Value
When is EOM Reconciliation due by?
THIS: The 3rd by EOD, 4th at midnight.
THAT: The 4th by EOD, 5th at midnight.
THIS!!!!
The 3rd by EOD, 4th at midnight.
Triggers in SFDC run on the 4th at midnight, so we need to have all EOM reconciling complete by the 3rd EOD.
What are the 3 questions that you should ask your internal team during a Level Set/Pulse Check?
You must say all 3 to get points.
How's our quality?
How's our communication?
How's our client satisfaction?
During what week of the month should you have an approval in writing for an overage.
3rd Week
Billable hours / total hours sold = burn to date
Planned hours - actual hours gives you the what?
DAILY DOUBLE!!!!!!!
You have a retainer client that is 80hrs/mo.
They mention they need data extracted from a new source they acquired and it needs to be done by March 1st, 2023.
After internally planning with your Delivery Owner, you decide this is going to take roughly 220 hours to complete.
Do you....? (And explain your reasoning)
THIS: Plan out your talk track to the client that it will be 60 hours minimum of overage to get it accomplished by their due date.
THAT: Enter an Outcome
DAILY DOUBLE: What would your next step be after either of the above?
THAT!
Enter an outcome.
This effort would take more than 2+ months of their retainer time, stalling all other initiatives which means it needs to be it's own project, especially to hit their timeline.
DAILY DOUBLE: Alert the Dept Head and Sandra that this resource will be needed for X amount of hours more than anticipated and updated WF immediately.
This term is how we financially understand how much the business is making off our projects.
Revenue Recognition
"Rev Rec"
What are the 3 options you should present to a client for when they send more work our way, but it will send us over our total hours sold for the month?
1. Maintain pace of current work and share the overage amount that will be billed on the 5th of the following month.
2. Reprioritize. Push something out that is currently in the project plan to the following month to accommodate the new ask.
3. Maintain status quo with no overage. What they sent over is deemed not a priority and it can wait til next month. Current work is maintained.
How do you calculate projected burn AND why is it important?
Planned hours / hours sold = projected burn
It's important to share this metric with your client on a weekly or bi-weekly cadence as it makes the overage conversation much easier and the client is not surprised when we ask for the overage or to reprioritize work.
What formula do you use to calculate working hours?
Total Hours Sold - Value = Working Hours
Reminder this is the time that we have to actually get the work done.
THIS: True
THAT: False
THAT!! SOOO False!
Retainers that do not habitually use all of their time do not stay clients for long due to that lack of impact we are making.
This is a type of profit. It occurs when a resource completes a task in less actual time than planned hours.
Efficiency
What is the exit criteria leaving an Internal Retainer Planning meeting?
Hint: There are 5 things.
Team is aligned on project status and health, immediate action items, upcoming tasks, burn rate and risks.
Case Study Example: 2 Part Question
You just finished your last INT Project Planning session, post the full discovery on the project being conducted. You are estimated 32 hours over the 500 that was sold. You are also burning fast and are already 129 hours into the project.
What is your burn-to-date burn?
What is your projected burn?
BTD: 26%
PB: 106%
What formula do you use to track incremental value?
(Billable Hours + Incremental Value Hours) / Total Hours Sold = Burn to Date including Incremental Value
Your manager asks to ensure that your retainers are planned out for the next 4 months. But we don't have initiatives planned out that far. I proceed with...
THIS: Plan each resource I know that is on the account for a designated amount of hours per what they've been working on the account and ensure assignees and dates are properly entered through May.
THAT: Enter monthly buckets for February, March, April and May and assign the department level for the assignee. Let the team know these are in the system.
THIS!!
You want to make sure the forecasted time is in each resource's name, not the department level. This informs Workload Balancer to individuals allocation and knowing who can take on new work for pipeline deals.
CAVEAT: If you have an active resource request in, for new work on an account and it's not been assigned yet, yes please get it into WF ASAP and assign the department. When it's resourced, change the dept name to the individual resource name.