Question: What is a DIY Time Estimate?

Answer: About a third of the time it will actually take!!!

I am not sure where I heard this first, but I was reminded of it again yesterday as I completed the tiling of a bathroom. It has proven to be broadly true a number of times, yet still my key “stakeholder” (for fans of Rumpole – She who must be obeyed!) steadfastly ignores previous experience.

To be fair the criteria of success are usually met as the benefits are delivered and the inevitable scope creep is accommodated, though not necessarily as quickly and cleanly as expected.

Last year I totally refitted a large kitchen, including tiling the floor, and dug up an old rose hedge. Both are complete, yet took longer than expected. On reflection there are some good reasons that we still tend to overlook when we undertake change in a professional capacity. In no particular order I would give six aspects for consideration

• Life throws up many distractions
• When one is working at home, one is rarely able to focus entirely on the task in hand. Instead family and the world at large throw other things into the mix that have to be handled, often at inopportune times (at least in respect of the DIY imperative) and these create interruptions and reduce efficiency.
• Requiring one person to multitask reduces efficiency
• DIY is often DIA or do-it-alone. The implications were all too apparent with this recent tiling experience. I was not only laying the tiles, but cutting them, mixing the adhesive and having to self-labour, ie carry the (heavy) materials up stairs. This meant that it was hard to do any aspect as efficiently as possible eg I could not mix too big a batch of adhesive, else it would start setting before I could use it and thus be wasted.
• Scope Creep is only to be expected
• What started as a simple(?) job to install a new shower and move a bath has since become a total refit of the room. The result will be better and overall the family will be happier, but it has seriously extended the job. This is not uncommon and I doubt reverting back to my “project charter” would cut it with my wife. J
• Expertise, or rather a lack of it, results in learning in the job
• I start most jobs with high confidence, I have, after all, refitted two houses pretty much from top to bottom over the years, but that does not make me an expert in any aspect. What skills I have were never honed to professional levels and degrade between projects. This manifests in more time planning/puzzling each activity as I don’t know the short cuts/easier ways, a slower work rate is I check and re-check work and despite this a higher error rate requiring correction/re-work. While there is a satisfaction in learning how to do the job well in the end, it comes at a price.
• Experience is hard to build when so much is new
• The “newness” in this case is a mix of unfamiliarity, irregular application and changing tools/equipment. For example I can and do plumb, but don’t do it often. As a result the materials such as pipes and joints seem to change each time. Similarly when the no-nail type adhesives came in, they made some aspects much easier, but needed some different techniques to achieve the desired results.
• Unexpected things happen, but it is hard to manage contingency
• Of course when you lift some floor boards you are never quite sure what you will find, but rarely is it good news that makes life easier. Similarly a dropped tile and a chipped bath will change/add to your plans. Of course no-one expects these, especially the “stakeholder”, but I struggle to think of a DIY project that has not suffered at some point in some way.

So how can we do take these experiences and a) do better and b) transfer the learning into our profession life, or do we just need to adjust our expectations? There are four things I can offer here

• Manageable chunks
• By this I mean break the work into packets of work that can be undertaken and completed relatively independently of the rest. This allows for discernible progress/delivery and for learning and adjustment expectations. Of course things like AGILE and SCRUM are attempts in the professional world, but I think we still need to educate stakeholders about the intent and value of these approaches. I think that many/most still consider a project to be a contractual undertaking that should be delivered as promised, as if by magic.
• Evolutionary projects
• Certainly for larger projects we could look for a more flexible, evolutionary approach than is often provided. This would mean a clear focus on benefits (as opposed to deliverables) in order to drive and calibrate effort. This does not mean project anarchy, but is intended to avoid dogma. There is a project approach called EVO or Evolutionary Project Management that is aimed at supporting this approach. It has been championed by Thomas & Kai Gilb (http://www.result-planning.com/Project-Management), but in my opinion is under-appreciated.
• A greater learning culture
• In many of the changes I have been involved with increasing the preference has been to hire “expert” resource in the hope that this will negate the need for learning. While there is something in this, it is also true that learning has to be contextual, ie what was learned in one place, may be directly applicable, but more likely it will need introduction and adaptation – which all take time. How often do we need see learning factored into projects now? The most extreme example of learning related to the advanced weapons research where thy were looking to create the leading weapons in 25 years time. They do not know exactly what these will be or the technology that will be available, but they know they need to be prepared. As a result they put in place major learning programmes now, so they will have the experts  they need when they need them.
• Handle contingency better
• Over the years it appears to me that contingency has become a bad word, despite the continuing evidence that it is needed. In practice the best hope is that contingency is hidden within a project plan, with risk-based estimating or plain sleight of hand, because in most cases and overt contingency is scored out as being “fat” and unnecessary. In part this reflects the increasing demand for instant/faster results, and in part because it is perceived that project managers/resources have abused contingency in the past. The challenge I think is to revisit contingency and see if we can’t take a more mature approach to using it as a valuable element of planning.