Reviewing and approving estimates

After the labor and material estimates are entered by the responsible party, the leader of the functional organization reviews the estimate and then approves or rejects it. If the estimate is rejected, the system returns it to the responsible party for re-estimation. If the estimate for the functional work package is approved, it becomes available for review by the upper level management of the functional organization. Upper level management can review and approve or reject multiple functional work packages at the same time.

Once a functional work package is approved by the topmost approval authority in the functional organization, the package is marked as approved. Once all the functional work packages for a WBS work package are approved, the WBS work package becomes available for review by the IPT organization. The responsible IPT can review and approve or reject multiple WBS work packages simultaneously.

Once a WBS work package is approved by the topmost approval authority in the IPT organization, it becomes available for approval by the finance department. The WBS work package is marked as approved after approval by the finance lead and the program manager.

Note: Hierarchical approval of estimates is denoted as a best practice in a sample implementation. You can implement approval workflows as per your process needs.

The IPP&E solution provides the following sample workflows for the estimation approval process:

• IPPE Estimation Assignment Process — This workflow initiates the estimation assignment process on the work package revision and initiates the estimation approval sub-process for each functional work package revision.
• IPPE FWP Estimation Approval Process — This workflow provides the estimation assignment and approval for the FWP by the functional organization lead. This process also triggers the estimation process on any dependent FWPs if the current FWP is approved. Additionally, the work package state is updated.
• IPPE FWP Estimation Management Approval Process — This workflow allows higher-level functional organizational leads to approve the FWP estimation. Release status is applied if the final approving level in the OBS approves the estimates. The work package estimation state is updated to Review.
• IPPE IPT Estimation Approval Process — This workflow allows higher-level functional organizational leads to approve the FWP estimation. Release status is applied if the final approving level in the OBS approves the estimates. The work package estimation state is updated to Review.
• IPPE IPT Management Estimation Approval Process — This workflow allows higher-level functional organizational leads to approve the FWP estimation. Release status is applied if the final approving level in the OBS approves the estimates. The work package estimation state is updated to Review.
• IPPE Finance Estimation Approval Process — This workflow provides finance-level approval for WBS work package estimates.
• IPPE Program Manager Estimation Approval Process — This workflow provides management approval of work packages for estimation.
• IPPE Work Package Owner Approval Process — This workflow provides work package owner approval when an IPT is not assigned to the work package.