Does one sized method fit all your needs? Or is one size all that is available to you?

In today's world you need to provide a range of product sizes to meet your customers' needs. The same is true with system development methods: The same method cannot meet everybody's needs.

Most methods are built for applications of a certain size range. This is great if your projects are all that size, but when you are working with significantly different-sized applications, you must modify your approach.

For example, a method that is targeted for a 24,000 work-hour project will scale nicely to work with half as large a project. With adjustment, it can work with a project that is one-third of the methodology design target.

But it will prove to be too much for a 6,000 hour project!We call this phenomenon "The Fourple Factor".

Many commercial methodologies are built to manage very large projects. This is because in larger projects there is more risk—and more risk produces more revenue for the consulting firm! Or, more recent arrivals to PM claim to sell scalable methods. While some truly are, we have been developing (and adapting) truly scaleable methodologies for over 25 years.

Our Large Project Guide (LPG) uses multiple concurrent iterations of our Medium Project Guide. The way we scale Medium projects upwards is by adding multiple teams, with team members full time. Then we stage the project for quicker results your customer can use.

Of course, to get this much work done that quickly, you need the right resources.

The LPG and our unique tool Plan By Example show how many people, with which skills you need to meet your timeline. Staff according to our model plan, and you will have a quick start.

A perfect plan! But the more you vary from our success model, the greater the cost, higher the risks, and lower the quality!

The key to MPG: it is the most that a team of up to seven of the right people, working half time, can complete in six months.

Why half time? Few practitioners have the luxury of working full time on today's projects. A caution: less than half time can make the cost per unit of deliverable soar!

MPG provides a 4-phase structure, with four milestones and key product reviews. Phases last three to six weeks, and projects last three to six months.

Plan By Example shows how to finish the project quickly and effectively; for those without the right staff availability, our "Thin Staffing" model is a useful fallback.

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