How to create a budget plan for a project in Merlin (Mac OS)

  • Tutorial
At the pre-sale stage of a project, two questions always arise.
  1. What are you going to do?
  2. How much is it?

To answer them quickly and with good accuracy, it is easiest to draw up a project budget.



There are projects that are relatively easy to plan and budget.
  1. Interface Design
  2. Build a site according to the scheme Content First.
  3. Launch of corporate startup idea development.
  4. Drawing up a simple (!) Technical task.
  5. Tests and audits of all stripes.
  6. Conducting a course or seminar.

The budget plan does not answer the following questions.
  1. Why should we do a project?
  2. What is the essence and meaning of a specific subtask?
  3. Who will specifically perform the task?

Each company has its own subtleties and preferences for drawing up a budget plan. Books have been written about approaches.
But in practice, a simple instruction is always needed: do it, then do it, and everything works out.
Below is just such an instruction: how to draw up a project budget in the Merlin program step by step .



Merlin is an analogue of MS Project for the Mac OS operating system. There are alternatives, but in this article we do not write anything about them.

We tried to omit the whole theory. In the comments, we are ready to discuss the questions: “Why so, and not otherwise?” The

article is useful to customers, sales people and project managers. A little less - for analysts, designers, planners, technical writers, editors, content managers, etc.Material has nothing to do with programmers.

Procedure


At the output, we get the plan budget of the project in the form of a Gantt chart. The result format is a PDF file. Russian language. The number of special designations is minimal: it’s easy for a beginner to explain the essence of the document in 5-10 minutes.

The sequence of steps is as follows.
  1. Formulate expectations on terms and cost.
  2. Set up a project.
  3. List the stages of work.
  4. For each stage:
    1. Record the sequence of work.
    2. List intermediate results.
    3. Paste approvals and presentations.
    4. Set the order of actions.
    5. Estimate the number of iterations and add them to the plan.
  5. Estimate the labor costs for each step.
  6. Set calendar frames for slow jobs.
  7. Appoint performers.
  8. Compare totals and costs with expectations.
  9. Double-check and correct if necessary.
  10. Create a PDF file with a project budget plan.


The nuances are described below - only the nuances! - every step. We skip the obvious actions: nevertheless, this is not a training course for dummies.

Purpose: in 20–40 minutes from scratch to plan an atypical project (100–300 items in the work list). We assume that the author of the document thinks quickly and prints even faster.

Step Cribs


1. To formulate expectations for the timing and cost


This step is not related to Merlin. But it is he who will help to see how dangerous and inaccurate the assessment is from the ceiling.

Estimate without calculations: what terms and cost do you expect to receive at the exit? Write these two numbers - in a file, in Evernote or on a sticker.



Rate quickly and silently. This is not a joke: it is important to make a decision on your own, and not to torture others.

2. Set up a project


Some project parameters are difficult to dig up in the Merlin interface. And sometimes it's hard to guess that they generally need to be sought and changed.



3. List the stages of work


As a stage, we consider a short sequence of simple actions that leads to a specific result. 7-10 tasks, no more. A large brushstroke project plan is the path from one stage to another.



Stages follow one after another (very rarely in parallel).
  1. Forget about standards and ready-made templates. Who likes to follow other people's methods? Creating your own structure out of chaos is a much more meaningful task.
  2. Two levels of nesting are almost always enough. Three - always.
  3. Two mandatory stages of almost any project are start and finish. What other mandatory steps are there in your practice? You better know.
  4. It’s too early to detail the steps. This is the next step.


4. For each stage


Many make a list of tasks, figure out the budget for each stage, and believe that this is the end of planning.
We believe that this is not enough. Be sure to detail each stage.
The finer the granularity, the easier it is to identify planning errors in a conversation with performers. And the more accurate the budget.

4.1. Record work sequence


If possible, all work must be taken into account in advance. And arrange them so that they lead to a specific intermediate result.



  1. Write down all the work that comes to mind. Key question: “What is small and understandable to do to get closer to the result?”
  2. For each item in the resulting list, ask two questions: “What should happen in order to ...” and “What will happen after that?” Add the answers to the list.
  3. Read the result as a story, imagine the development of events. Find gaps in this story. Fill them with new jobs.
  4. All titles of works begin with the verb: "Draw a sketch of the banner", "Discuss the requirements within the team."
  5. The wording answers the question “What to do?”. That is, at the beginning it’s not just a verb, but a perfect form: I’ll do it, not do it. There is only one exception - “Presentation of something”. About him below.
  6. In a stage no more than 10 works. If their number is approaching 15, find a way to break it into two stages or into several iterations.
  7. Meetings and discussions are work. And very large: approximately 60% of the total volume. Sometimes 80%. Be sure to include all meetings and discussions in the plan. The same applies to phoning.
  8. Making corrections from meetings and discussions is also work.


4.2. List intermediate results


What will be the result? What can I pick up? What embodied the creative efforts of the team? What intermediate “brick” will we create, coordinate, finish, and then present and use at the end? What is the name of this thing? It is the result that makes the stage obviously useful and concrete.



  1. Give results short and precise. The "list of comments" is bad. “Designer Comments” is already better. "Suggestions for finalizing the interface" - is suitable, although a bit long.
  2. Agree on the terms. Aren't life situations the same as user scripts?
  3. Lock the format. Is the interface prototype a set of html files or a picture?
  4. Call the final version of anything — the final one: “The final version of the press release.”
  5. Clarify the concepts. “Terms of Reference” - is it three leaflets or three volumes? Is “Design” a sketch or 100,500 sketches?


4.3. Paste approvals and presentations


Communication with the customer and the project team is work. Meaningful. And very difficult. Each stage will require at least one approval, discussion and presentation.



  1. If necessary, put the work "Get the go-ahead at the start of the stage."
  2. Dilute the workflow with meetings and discussions so that you communicate with the client at least every three days.
  3. The latest version of the result of any stage should always be agreed upon. This is the work: “Agree on the rationale for the project.”
  4. A good dose for each stage - two contacts with the client. Once “Discuss the first version of the result”, the second - “Agree on the final version”.
  5. Sometimes there are three or four meetings with a client per stage in the plan. More is more likely a planning mistake: break the stage into two.
  6. A presentation can be recorded without the verb: “Presentation of interface concepts”. Yes, an exception to the rule.
  7. You need to prepare for the presentation. This is a job. Insert it into the plan: “Prepare presentation slides,” “Preliminarily discuss the essence of the presentation with decision makers,” etc.
  8. The meeting needs to be organized. If the participants scatter like cockroaches, and there are few conversations, then this is also the work: “Make an appointment / call”.
  9. Internal discussions are also work: "Discuss the prototype with a senior designer."
  10. After each discussion, insert the task: "Make corrections based on the results of the discussion."


4.4. Define a procedure


In the Gantt chart, the total duration of the project is the sum of the durations of small tasks. So the tasks need to be connected in chains: what’s behind what and what’s parallel to what.



  1. Very rarely, you need something more complicated than Finish - Start.
  2. If the Finish - Start link looks ridiculous, break it. And individually tune the finer connections between jobs.


4.5. Estimate the number of iterations and add them to the plan


Only very small projects can be done in cascading patterns . Typically, the core of a project is several iterations of “meaningful” work: design, testing, collecting requirements, writing texts, etc.



  1. Iterations should be the same in terms of work. Or almost the same.
  2. The number of iterations must be estimated already in the budget plan. This is unpleasant, but necessary. All the same it is necessary. I don’t want to, but I need to .
  3. You do not know at all how many iterations to set - put three.
  4. For large and slurred customers put 17. So it will be, believe me .
  5. The number of iterations is a matter of bargaining with the customer. A smart customer quickly realizes that it is in his interests to quickly coordinate everything in two iterations. Make sure that you have laid the space for bargaining, and you can throw one iteration without losing the meaning of the project.


5. Estimate the labor costs for each step


Surprisingly, even the "ceiling" rating works. Feel free to guess (yes, this is against all the rules). But it’s better to interrogate the performers for each item on the plan.



  1. Choose the estimate of labor costs from the progression: 1–2–4–8–16.
  2. Break everything that is over 16 hours into several works.
  3. Minimum labor costs - 1 hour. Even if in fact 5 minutes, it still takes time to dive and small questions.
  4. Do not know what time to evaluate - put 4 hours. Have time to cut.
  5. All meetings outside your office - 4 hours. Perhaps for Moscow - 8.
  6. More precisely, than in increments of 2–4 hours, it is not necessary to evaluate in any case.
  7. When comparing grades with performers, ask this way: “Will this work take less than 2 hours, or rather 4?” Do not ask to evaluate from scratch - you torture people.


6. Set calendar frames for slow jobs


There are tasks in which work - for 5 minutes. But these 5 minutes still need to be found in the schedule of a busy person. Not only labor costs, but also calendar time should be reserved for such plan items: it affects the timeline, but not the project cost.



  1. Most tasks do not require a separate calendar time.
  2. Write calendar ranges in days. Not in hours.
  3. Allocate 2 calendar days for all meetings and presentations. Shifts are almost inevitable.
  4. For calls and coordination - 1 day. The same reason. To internal meetings also applies.
  5. Put the calendar duration on tasks of the "Collect statistics" type. You can check the data in 5 minutes, but they will accumulate for several days or even weeks.


7. Assign performers


A rare stage. Usually, a “default executor” is enough with the hourly rate that you assigned to the entire project at the very beginning of planning.



  1. To include other people's work in the plan (for example, if something must be done by a customer’s employee), create a resource with zero cost.
  2. If there are performers with a special rate, explicitly assign only them. Leave the remaining tasks with the default executor.
  3. Even in difficult cases, it is usually enough to create three performers with different rates to estimate the budget.
  4. After the appointment of the performers, the numbering of the tasks of the plan will go. This is not your fault, but simply a feature of Merlin. Do not look for “loss tasks”.



8. Verify the deadlines and costs with expectations


Find the sticker from the first paragraph. What was written on it? Compare with the result.



  1. Your “mistake” means nothing.
  2. Accurate hit - too.
  3. Only one thing is important: what error do you begin to consider acceptable over time?



9. Recheck and correct again, if necessary.


It happens that the result is not satisfied. Especially the customer. Then you need to go through all the steps again. And ask yourself two questions.
  1. What can be changed to make the plan closer to the dream?
  2. What could be a mistake here?

Sometimes you need to edit the work parameters, sometimes - the project settings as a whole.



  1. It happens that you can not change. Or that after the alteration, the situation only worsened. Well then, that’s what the truth looks like.
  2. To fit such a plan into unreasonable expectations is impossible. And this is good.
  3. Usually after review, 5–7 forgotten tasks appear ...
  4. ... and refinement of labor costs reduces the price by 20%.
  5. Calendar dates can almost never be reduced.


10. Create a PDF file with a project budget plan


Oddly enough, this is a non-trivial interface task.



* * *

That's all. As you can see, mastering the skill of quickly drawing up a budget plan in Merlin is a simple matter. True, you need to be able to quickly print. Well, boldly neglect the "solid" planning methods.

We are happy to answer questions about chips and meaning. For clarifications of any kind, we will be grateful.

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