About Authoring
A methodologyis a set of repeatable processes and instructionsfor efficiently
and systematically achieving a goal. It provides you with a standard sequence
of steps that are required toplan and complete projects.
With Author, you can record your organization’s best business practices in a
custom methodology. After the methodology is created or authored, project
planners and estimators use it to plan new projects. A well-designed
methodology can speed up project planning, provide repeatable processes, and
set up standards across the entire organization.
When you author a methodology, you create profile pages with questions, or
factors, designed to prompt the project planner for specific information. The
answers the planner providesduring profiling can result in Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) recommendations and project size adjustments, as well as
contribute to estimating formula calculations. For planning and estimating
subsequent projects, the information gathered in the profile pages is
invaluable. You can use this information to locate projects with similar
attributes in the repository, and then use these projects as a basis for WBS
planning or estimating.
You can also author the WBS hierarchies, roles, dependencies, and estimating
cases your organization uses. This provides project planners and estimators
with libraries of objects from which they can select.
Getting Started
About Authoring
Using Author with Clarity, 1e 14
Author provides a default methodologies: Risk method, Status method, HR Sample
method, HRSampleKI method, which may simplify the authoring process for you. If
it meets your organization’s requirements, you do not need to create your own
methodology; you can customize any Authormethod or use it as is. For more
information about the Author methods, see “Using a Clarity Method”on 21.
The people best suited toauthor an organization’s methodology are those most
familiar with previous, successful project plans. Some organizations have a
dedicated methodologist onstaff devoted to authoring best practices.
In other organizations, the person who authors a methodology is the person most
interested in improving organizational practices. In either case, the methodology
author should have:
„ thorough knowledge of the organization’s business practices
„ familiarity with successful projects the organization has completed
„ knowledge of factors that affect project plan decisions
„ basic knowledge of project management principles
„ thorough knowledge of the components involved in building a successful plan,
including WBS structures, deliverables, roles, estimates
„ some experience with a project scheduling tool, such as Workbench or
Microsoft Project
The information you need to gather beforeauthoring a methodology is detailed in
the section “Before You Create the Methodology”on 16.
That is no longer supported.