Benchmark for effort distribution

Abhay Kale

Hi

Looking for % effort distribution benchmarks for a professional service project.

Phases = Planning, Requirements, Design, Build, and Test

Alternately a cost distribution may also help.

StevenForth

I don't think one can give a canned answer to this. It depends a great deal on whether near identical work has been done before (is this a cookie cutter project), is it a collaborative exploration with the client, is it something you are going to invest in as it will also deliver value to other clients, and so on.

Here are numbers from two extremes in implementing our skill and talent management platform.

1. Routine implementation with customization of reports

Planning/Investigation 5%

Requirements 5%

Design 20%

Build 50%

Test 20%

Customer Success 100% (i.e. ongoing customer success was equal to the full implementation project)

2. Exploration of Future Skills

Planning/Investigation 30%

Requirements 5%

Design 25%

Build 40%

Test N/A

Dollar values would be roughly the same, though the percentage allocated to development would go up somewhat.

With good automated testing one might be able to get Test down to 10% for highly standardized projects. I think the upper limit on Build is 60-70%. In our business we plan for build to 40-50% and Test about 1/3 of build.

Abhay Kale

Thanks a lot Steven!

Abhay Kale