STC’s first-ever Canadian President, Bernard Aschwanden, is back in Calgary and will be running a half-day workshop relevant for anyone working on documentation projects, whether you’re a contractor or employee. Don’t miss this excellent opportunity to brush up your estimation skills and learn from an expert in our industry.
Time is money, right? We hear it so often that it seems cliché, but incorrectly estimating a project makes managing the project difficult. To correctly estimate costs you need a baseline to work with, accurate details on the time and costs of historical projects, and an easy way to track differences. The more accurate you are on estimation, the easier the overall management becomes, and the sooner you can identify issues that impact the bottom line.
Beginning with an overview of estimating a documentation project, we explore what to estimate and how to come up with initial numbers. Then we track the actual time and cost involved, automate the tracking of differences, and explore how to estimate more accurately the next time. Every round of estimating helps establish a better baseline.
Using simple to follow, but real-world based examples, we create a complete estimate (take it with you at the end of the session!). We compare ways to estimate (start with a deadline, ID what you can do OR identify the things to do, and set an end date), discuss why estimates are important, and explore how to deal with setting scope (and how to manage changes to scope) when estimating.
Leave with a concrete example of an estimate that you help build, a good understanding of the components of an estimate, and the tools to more accurately estimate your projects.
For those who have their own business (or are considering one), the estimate provides a good way to work with clients, set expectations, and see where you are with projects (especially when it comes to billing!).
For those who work in a business, the estimate provides a way to justify resource allocation, defend the need for more (people, time, resources), and establish a track record of success (great at performance review time, or when starting to work with new teams).
Program Details
Date: Friday, November 18, 2016
Time: 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (breakfast plus mid-morning snacks and drinks will be served)
Location: Innovate Calgary (formerly CTI), 3553 31 St NW, Calgary AB (map)
- Parking: Plenty of free parking in parking lot in front of building
- Transit: Brentwood train station and lots of bus service to the area (near U of C)
Cost:
- $75 members
- $150 non-members
- Tip: Sign up for Bernard’s Thursday evening event and you will get a $25 discount for this event (refund cheque issued at the door of Friday’s event). That means you get two great events for just $75 (member price; non-member price after discount is $175).
Speaker: Bernard Aschwanden, Immediate Past President of STC (and first Canadian president of STC!), Associate Fellow, founder of Publishing Smarter
Registration:
Registration is now closed.
Contact: programs@stc-alberta.org